Preserving the past to serve the future

Lilli Zickerman’s inventory of textile handicrafts 1914–1931

Authors

  • Anneli Palmsköld Göteborgs universitet
  • Karin Gustavsson The Folklife Archives at Lund University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9773-7601
  • Johanna Rosenqvist Linnaeus University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7577/formakademisk.5414

Keywords:

Craft documentation, cuCultural historical inventorieses, craft history, craft knowledge, critical craft studies

Abstract

Lilli Zickerman (1858–1949) was an entrepreneur who took part in organising the Swedish handicraft associations in the late 19th century. She was also a pioneer in the archives and active in the feminine sphere of textile handicraft. From 1914–1931 she conducted a huge inventory called Swedish Folk Textile Art that consists of more than 24,000 photographs and descriptions of vernacular textiles and manuscripts for a planned series of books and films. By mapping textile handicrafts, she aimed to preserve traditional textile craft techniques to inspire their continued production. Her intention was to create an archive for the inspiration and education of future textile artists. The inventory has had effects that are still apparent today; this paper illuminates the ways in which Zickerman’s ideas about textile handicrafts have contributed to the continuation of Swedish cultural heritage and how it has become an authorised heritage discourse that continues to guide the scholars and practitioners involved in the history of textiles and their production. Here, we will present the first article within an ongoing project on Swedish Folk Textile Art and how it was conducted. We will contextualise the ideas and knowledge that it contains by focusing on Zickerman’s intention to preserve the past to serve the future. From a critical craft perspective, we will discuss geographical mapping as a method for investigating the invent­tory; the inclusion and exclusion of geographical areas, textile techniques, materials and people; the ideas and the knowledge that are expressed in the inventory; and the networks that it created. By doing so, we aim to highlight the connections between people, between people and materials, and between history and the current day.

Author Biographies

Anneli Palmsköld, Göteborgs universitet

Professor in conservation specialized in craft science 
Department of Conservation 

Karin Gustavsson, The Folklife Archives at Lund University

PhD 

Johanna Rosenqvist, Linnaeus University

PhD, Associate Professor 
Department of Music and Art

References

Assman, A. (2008). Canon and Archive. In A. Erll. & A. Nünning (Eds.), Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook (pp. 97–108). Walter de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110207262.2.97

Buchzyk, M. (2020). Making Certainty and Dwelling through Craft. Journal of American Folklore, 133(528), 178–192. https://doi.org/10.5406/jamerfolk.133.528.0178

Fallan, K. & Lees-Maffei, G. (2016). Designing Worlds: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization, Berghahn Books. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv8bt1mv

Gentry, K. & Smith, L. (2019). Critical heritage studies and the legacies of the late-twentieth century heritage canon. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 25(11), 1148–1168. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2019.1570964

Grahn, V. & Wilson, R. (Eds.) (2018). Gender and Heritage. Performance, Place and Politics. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315460093

Gustavsson, K. (2014). Expeditioner i det förflutna. Etnologiska fältarbeten och försvinnande allmogekultur under 1900-talets början [Expeditions in the past. Ethnological fieldwork and disappearing commoner culture during the beginning of the 20th century] [Doctoral Diss., Lund University]. Nordiska museets förlag. https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/3898366/5157411.pdf

Gustavsson, K. (2020). Upptecknarna och uppteckningarna [The recorders and the records]. In Upptecknaren: Nytt från Folklivsarkivet (13, pp. 5–11). https://www.folklivsarkivet.lu.se/fileadmin/user_upload/folklivsarkivet/upload/Upptecknaren/Upptecknaren_nr_13__2019.pdf

Gustavsson, K. (2022). Kära ungdomsminnen, folkminnen och arkivminnen. Om Eva Wigströms samarbete med illustratören Gisela Trapp [Cherished memories of youth, folk traditions and archive records: On Eva Wigström’s collaboration with the illustrator Gisela Trapp]. Svenska landsmål och svenskt folkliv, 144, 9–38. https://portal.research.lu.se/en/publications/k%C3%A4ra-ungdomsminnen-folkminnen-och-arkiv-minnen-om-eva-wigstr%C3%B6ms-s

Hemslöjdens Samlingar. (2023, June 9). Zickermans studiesamling. Digitalt museum. https://digitaltmuseum.se/search/?q=Zickermans+studiesamling&aq=owner%3F%3A%22S-HS%22

Hemslöjdskommittén. (1918). Hemslöjdskommitténs betänkande [The Handicraft Committee's report]. Nordiska bokh.

Hyltén-Cavallius, C. (2007). Traditionens estetik: spelet mellan inhemsk och internationell hemslöjd [The aesthetics of tradition: the play between domestic and international handicrafts][Doctoral Diss.]. Stockholm University.

Hyltén-Cavallius, C. (2015). “Att göra en nation” [The making of a Nation]. In C. Zetterlund, C. Hyltén-Cavallius, & J. Rosenqvist (Eds.), Konsthantverk i Sverige [Arts and crafts in Sweden] (pp. 23–31). Mångkulturellt centrum/ Konstfack Collection. http://www.konsthantverkisverige.se/1/pdf/konsthantverk-i-sverige-del-1_02.pdf

Johannesson, L. (2007). Konst och visuell kultur i Sverige 1810-2000 [Art and visual culture in Sweden 1810-2000]. Signum.

Klein, B. (2013). Women and the formation of Swedish Folklife Research. The Journal of American Folklore, 126(500), 120–151. https://doi.org/10.5406/jamerfolk.126.500.0120

Klekot, E. (2020). The Craft of Factory Labor. Journal of American Folklore, 133(528), 205–227. https://doi.org/10.5406/jamerfolk.133.528.0205

Konstfack. (2023). The Zickerman collection. https://www.konstfack.se/en/Library/About-the-library/Collections/The-Zickerman-collection/

Lind, M. F. (2020). Handspinning Tradition in the United States: Traditionalization and Revival. Journal of American Folklore, 133(528), 142–164. https://doi.org/10.5406/jamerfolk.133.528.0142

Lundahl, G. (Ed.) (1999). Den vackra nyttan: om hemslöjd i Sverige [The beautiful benefit: about handicrafts in Sweden]. Gidlund/ Riksbankens jubileumsfond.

Lundahl, G. (2001). Karaktär och känsla: ett sekel med Svensk hemslöjd [Character and feeling: a century of Swedish handicraft]. Raster.

Lundstedt, A. (2005). Vit governmentalitet: "invandrarkvinnor" och textilhantverk – en diskursanalys [Doctoral Diss.], University of Gothenburg.

Meister, A. (Ed.) (2012). Lilli & Prinsen: 100 år av hemslöjd och textil konst [Lilli & the Prince: 100 years of handicrafts and textile art]. Carlsson.

Metslaid, M. (2015, June 21-25). Two fieldworks among Estonian Swedes in the 1920s and 1930s. Ethnologists and their research subjects in different political settings. [Conference presentation] The SIEF 2015 12th Congress, Zagreb, Croatia, https://nomadit.co.uk/sief/sief2015/panels.php5#3454

Nylén, A-M. (1969). Hemslöjd: den svenska hemslöjden fram till 1800-talets slut [Hemslöjd: the Swedish handicrafts until the end of the 19th century]. H. Ohlsson.

Osorio Iregui, L. (2020). Reconstructing a Sence of Home: Basket Making among Wounaan Artisans. Journal of American Folklore, 133(528), 165–177. https://doi.org/10.5406/jamerfolk.133.528.0165

Palmsköld, A. (2016). Craft, Crochet and Heritage. In A. Palmsköld, J. Rosenqvis & G. Almevik (Eds.), Crafting Cultural Heritage (pp. 12–29). University of Gothenburg, Department of Conservation.

Palmsköld, A. (2018, March 8). Emma Carolina Helena (Lilli) Zickerman. In Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon. Retrieved 2022-03-14. www.skbl.se/sv/artikel/LilliZickerman

Palmsköld, A. (2021). Estetisk variation i vävning och broderi. In I. Nyström, A. Palmsköld, J. Knutsson (Eds.), Hälsinglands inredningskultur [Hälsingland's interior design culture]. Kriterium. https://doi.org/10.22188/kriterium.23

Palmsköld, A. & Rosenqvist, J. (2018). Handicrafting Gender: Craft, Performativity and Cultural Heritage. In W. Grahn & R. Wilson (Eds.), Heritage and Gender. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315460093-4

Rosenqvist, J. (2007). Könsskillnadens estetik? Om konst och konstskapande i svensk hemslöjd på 1920-och 1990-talen [An Aesthetics of Sexual Difference? : On Art and Artistry in Swedisch handicraft of the 1920s and 1990s], (Doctoral Diss.) Lund University. Nordiska museets förlag.

Rosenqvist, J. & Palmsköld, A. (2015). Att göra genus. In C. Zetterlund, C., Hyltén-Cavallius, & J. Rosenqvist (Eds.), Konsthantverk i Sverige [Arts and crafts in Sweden] (pp. 33-46). Mångkulturellt centrum/ Konstfack Collection.

Smith, L. (2006). Uses of heritage. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203602263

Stavenow-Hidemark, E. (2005). Varandras ledstjärnor. Om Lilli Zickerman, Elsa Gullberg och Gunnel Hazelius-Berg [Each other's guiding stars. About Lilli Zickerman, Elsa Gullberg and Gunnel Hazelius-Berg.]. In B. Svensson & L. Waldén (Eds.), Den feminina textilen: makt och mönster (pp. 29–46). Nordiska museets förlag.

Torell, V. & Palmsköld, A. (2020). Dwelling in Craft: Introduction: A Call for Studies about Craft. Journal of American Folklore, 133(528), 131–141. https://doi.org/10.5406/jamerfolk.133.528.0131

Waldén, G. & Svensson, B. (Ed.) (2005). Den feminina textilen: makt och mönster [The feminine textile: power and pattern]. Nordiska museets förlag.

Zickerman, L. (1937). Sveriges folkliga textilkonst: utdrag ur Föreningens för svensk hemslöjd samlingsverk över svenska allmogetextilier. D. 1, Rölakan [Sweden's folk textile art: excerpts from the Swedish Homework Association's collection of Swedish folk textiles. D. 1, Rölakan]. Svensk litteratur.

Zickerman, L. (1999). Lilli Zickermans bästa: hemslöjdstankar från källan [Lilli Zickerman's best: home craft ideas from the source]. Hemslöjden.

Downloads

Published

2023-09-21

How to Cite

Palmsköld, A., Gustavsson, K., & Rosenqvist, J. (2023). Preserving the past to serve the future : Lilli Zickerman’s inventory of textile handicrafts 1914–1931. FormAkademisk, 16(4). https://doi.org/10.7577/formakademisk.5414

Cited by