The Quaker Tapestry consists of 77 panels illustrating the history of Quakerism from the 17th century to the present day. The idea of Quaker Anne Wynn-Wilson, the tapestry has a permanent home at the

Friends Meeting House A Friends meeting house is a meeting house of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), where meeting for worship is usually held. Typically, Friends meeting houses are simple and resemble local residential buildings. Steeples, spires, and ...

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of t ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. ...

, England. The design was heavily influenced by the Bayeux Tapestry, and includes similar design choices, including three horizontal divisions within panels, embroidered outlines for faces and hands, and solid infilling of clothing, which is embroidered in the Bayeux technique. The tapestry is worked in crewel embroidery using woollen yarns on a handwoven woollen background. In addition to using four historic and well-known stitches (

split stitch Backstitch or ''back stitch'' and its variants ''stem stitch'', ''outline stitch'' and ''split stitch'' are a class of embroidery and sewing stitches in which individual stitches are made backward to the general direction of sewing. In embr ...

stem stitch Backstitch or ''back stitch'' and its variants ''stem stitch'', ''outline stitch'' and ''split stitch'' are a class of embroidery and sewing stitches in which individual stitches are made backward to the general direction of sewing. In embroid ...

chain stitch Chain stitch is a sewing and embroidery technique in which a series of looped stitches form a chain-like pattern. Chain stitch is an ancient craft – examples of surviving Chinese chain stitch embroidery worked in silk thread have been dated ...

and Peking knot), Wynn-Wilson invented a new corded stitch, known as Quaker stitch, to allow for tight curves on the lettering. Each panel measures wide by tall. 4,000 men, women and children from 15 countries worked on the panels between 1981 and 1989. Panels have been toured in traveling exhibitions including a North American tour in 1993/1994. An exhibition of 39 panels in

Ely Cathedral Ely Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, is an Anglican cathedral in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. The cathedral has its origins in AD 672 when St Etheldreda built an abbey church. The present ...

in 2012 attracted 11,273 visitors during its 27-day stay. Although the content of all 77 panels is widely published, only around 40 are on display at any one time, and close observers have noted that 23 have never been seen in public. This has led to some speculation in

avant garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or 'vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical D ...

embroidery circles that the content may actually be transgressive in nature. In October 2021, the museum was one of 142 sites across England to receive part of a £35-million injection into the government's

Culture Recovery Fund The Culture Recovery Fund is a grants programme issued by the UK Government as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund aims to financially support cultural organisations in England (such as theatres, museums, and music venues) which had bec ...

."Heritage and Craft Workers Across England Given a Helping Hand"
–

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

, 22 October 2021

List of the panels

# The Prism (Title Panel) #

George Fox George Fox (July 1624 – 13 January 1691) was an English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends. The son of a Leicestershire weaver, he lived in times of social upheaval and ...

's convincement (A1) #

James Nayler James Nayler (or Naylor; 1618–1660) was an English Quaker leader. He was among the members of the Valiant Sixty, a group of early Quaker preachers and missionaries. In 1656, Nayler achieved national notoriety when he re-enacted Christ's Palm ...

's call to ministry (A2) # James Parnell: Meetings for Sufferers (A3) # Richard Sellar (A4) # The good ship 'Woodhouse' (A5) # John Woolman (A6) #

Conscientious objection A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to objecti ...

(A7) # Manchester Conference 1895 (A8) #

Oath Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon ', also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise taken by a sacrality as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to g ...

s (A9) # George Fox travels to Sedbergh (B1) # Mary Fisher, Elizabeth Hooton (B2) #

John Bright John Bright (16 November 1811 – 27 March 1889) was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, one of the greatest orators of his generation and a promoter of free trade policies. A Quaker, Bright is most famous for battling the Corn La ...

(B3) # Publishers of Truth (B4) #

Stephen Grellet Stephen Grellet (28 October 1772 – 16 November 1855) was a prominent French-American Quaker missionary. Life Grellet was born Étienne de Grellet du Mabillier in Limoges, France, the son of Antoine Gabriel Grellet, a counsellor of King Loui ...

(B5) #

Woodbrooke Woodbrooke Study Centre is a Quaker college in Selly Oak, Birmingham, England. The only Quaker Study Centre in Europe, it was founded by George Cadbury in 1903 and occupies his former home on the Bristol Road. Woodbrooke's first Director of St ...

Selly Oak Selly Oak is an industrial and residential area in south-west Birmingham, England. The area gives its name to Selly Oak ward and includes the neighbourhoods of: Bournbrook, Selly Park, and Ten Acres. The adjoining wards of Edgbaston and Harbor ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

(B6) # Service Overseas (B7) # Quaker Peace Action caravan (B8) # Swarthmoor Hall, Ulverston (C1) # Margaret Fell, Mother of Quakerism (C2) # Keep your meetings (C3) # Meeting houses (C4) # Meeting Houses overseas (C5) # Meeting Houses in the Community (C6) # Quaker schools (C7) #

Marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

(C8) # Pilgrimages (C9) # Children and Young People (C10) #

The Leaveners The Leaveners are a performing arts organisation consisting of members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). They started at Britain Yearly Meeting in 1978. They run a number of projects, most specifically for young people, some resulti ...

(C11) # George Fox at

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west o ...

Pendle Hill Pendle Hill is in the east of Lancashire, England, near the towns of Burnley, Nelson, Colne, Brierfield, Clitheroe and Padiham. Its summit is above mean sea level. It gives its name to the Borough of Pendle. It is an isolated hill in the ...

(D1) # Quaker

Simplicity Simplicity is the state or quality of being simple. Something easy to understand or explain seems simple, in contrast to something complicated. Alternatively, as Herbert A. Simon suggests, something is simple or complex depending on the way we ...

(D2) # Personal Devotion (D3) #

Coalbrookdale Coalbrookdale is a village in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. It lies within the civil parish called the Gorge. This is where iron ore was first ...

(D4) # Innocent Trades (D5) # Quaker merchants (D6) # Railways (D7) # Quaker

Botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

s (D8) # Quaker Doctors (D9) # Quaker Scientists (D10) # Industrial Welfare (D11) # Query 19 (D12) #

Scott Bader Commonwealth Ernest Bader (24 November 1890 – 5 February 1982) and his wife, Dora Scott, founded a chemical company, Scott Bader, and gave it to the employees under terms of Common ownership, forming the Scott Bader Commonwealth in 1951. Scott Bader Ltd. wa ...

(D13) # Fox at

Ulverston Ulverston is a market town and a civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 11,524, increasing at the 2011 census to 11,678. Historically in Lancashire, it lies a f ...

(E1) #

John Bellers John Bellers (1654 – 8 February 1725) was an English educational theorist and Quaker, author of ''Proposals for Raising a College of Industry of All Useful Trades and Husbandry'' (1695). Life Bellers was born in London, the son of the Quaker ...

(E2) # Banking (E3) #

Criminal Justice Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...

(E4) #

Elizabeth Fry Elizabeth Fry (née Gurney; 21 May 1780 – 12 October 1845), sometimes referred to as Betsy Fry, was an English prison reformer, social reformer, philanthropist and Quaker. Fry was a major driving force behind new legislation to improve the tr ...

(E5) # Elizabeth Fry and the Patchwork

Quilt A quilt is a multi-layered textile, traditionally composed of two or more layers of fabric or fiber. Commonly three layers are used with a filler material. These layers traditionally include a woven cloth top, a layer of batting or wadding, ...

s (E6) # First-day schools (E7) # The Great Hunger (E8) #

Mary Hughes Dame Mary Ethel Hughes GBE (née Campbell; 6 June 18742 April 1958) was the second wife of Billy Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923. She was the daughter of a well-to-do grazier, and grew up in country New South Wales. She ...

(E9) #

Unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the refe ...

(E10) # Friends' Provident Institution (E11) # William Allen (E12) #

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

Gaol (F1) # Trial of Penn and Meade (F2) # Early Friends and

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

(F3) # Daniel Wheeler (F4) # Delegation to the Czar (F5) # Relief Work:

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isl ...

(F6) # Relief of suffering (F7) # Friends' Ambulance Unit (F8) # Reconciliation (F9) #

Underground Railway The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

(F10) #

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

and

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

(F11) #

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and

Milford Haven Milford Haven ( cy, Aberdaugleddau, meaning "mouth of the two Rivers Cleddau") is both a town and a community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is situated on the north side of the Milford Haven Waterway, an estuary forming a natural harbour that has ...

meeting (F12) # Quakers in

Dolgellau Dolgellau () is a town and Community (Wales), community in Gwynedd, north-west Wales, lying on the River Wnion, a tributary of the River Mawddach. It was the traditional county town of the Historic counties of Wales, historic county of Merionet ...

(F13) # Quakerism in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

(F14) # Workcamps (F15) # Building the institutions of

Peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

(F16) # Vigils for Peace (F17) # World Conference 1991 (F18) # Friends and the

Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

(F19) #

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

(F20) # Friends in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

(F21) # The Netherlands 1940–1945 (F22) # World Family and Friends (Final Panel)

References

External links

Quaker Tapestry
{{coord, 54.32849, N, 2.74297, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Embroidery Quakerism Modern tapestries 1989 works Museums in Cumbria Textile museums in the United Kingdom Religious museums in England Tourist attractions in Cumbria 1989 in England English design

List of the panels

Further reading

References

External links