UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The science, art and history of textile and paper dyes and their uses in books and manuscripts will be the focus of the upcoming exhibition "Sad Purple and Mauve: A History of Dye-Making," co-organized by Penn State University Libraries’ Eberly Family Special Collections Library and the Center for Virtual/Material Studies. The exhibition runs from Sept. 14 through Jan. 15, 2024, in the Special Collections exhibition space at 104 Paterno Library on the University Park campus. The opening will take place on Sept. 14 from 4-6 p.m. in Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library, and is free and open to the public.
During the long history of imbuing our environments and possessions with color, dyes used for clothing, fabrics, furniture and paper have played an essential role in distinguishing social affiliations and economic class. Explorations of the social and material aspects of textile and paper dye-making relate to larger issues of power and authority including the histories of colonization and slavery, the growth of present-day pharmaceutical companies and the extraction of fossil fuels. The exhibition will also highlight those involved in dye-making — artists, bookmakers, botanists, chemists, farmers, foragers and homemakers, amongst others — and the natural and synthetic materials and processes that can be used to create dyes.
Exhibition items span centuries, from the 6th-century to the present, and represent cultures across the world. Highlights include a facsimile of a medieval manuscript dyed purple, 18th-century handwritten Scottish dye recipes, an ostrich feather dying manual, and examples of mud cloth from Mali and batik from Indonesia.
Books and manuscripts are from the Eberly Family Special Collections Library, with loans of textiles, prints and plant specimens from the Matson Museum of Anthropology, the Palmer Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Agricultural College Herbarium and private collection.
Associated events include a lecture by Sylvia Houghteling, associate professor of history of art, Bryn Mawr College, titled Perishable Dyes and the Season in Early Modern South Asia. That lecture will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 20, at 6 p.m. in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library.
Sarah Rich, co-curator of the exhibition and director of the Center for Virtual/Material Studies at Penn State’s College of Arts and Architecture, will lead a workshop titled Dyestuff: Historical Materials of Color on Friday, Oct. 13, at 11 a.m. in Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library, that will examine materials such as wheat bran, hydrangea branches, oak galls, safflower petals, lotus pods, nutritional yeast, snails, coal tar and mud to explore how they have produced extraordinary colors throughout history and around the world. Rich is also an associate professor of art history.
Public tours of the exhibition will be offered on Thursday, Oct. 19, at 1 p.m. and on Wednesday, Nov. 15, at 10 a.m. Tours are free, open to all and take place in the Special Collections exhibition space.
The exhibition is co-curated by Rich and Clara Drummond, lead curator and exhibitions coordinator in special collections, in collaboration with many partners across departments and areas of expertise. Further questions and requests for class or public tours, including inquiries regarding accessibility accommodation, should be directed to Drummond at cjd86@psu.edu.