Bed furnishings in early America

A Wadsworth Atheneum and Museum exhibit reveals how we once slept.

A miniature version of a New England high-post bed (ca. 1750-1765), with historically accurate bed furnishings by Natalie Larson

Object on loan courtesy of Natalie and Bruce Larson

Photograph courtesy of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

Visitors at the Wadsworth Atheneum admire a coverlet (ca. 1780)—also known as a “counterpane”—with impressive appliqué craftsmanship.

Photograph courtesy of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

A Star of Bethlehem quilt (1842), made by Submit Gay, of Hartford.

A gift from Miss Fanny Gay Darrow. (1926.2904)

Photograph courtesy of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

A good night’s sleep was likely hard to come by in early American homes. Privacy was rare—any beds were located in common spaces—and only householders with seniority got one; children, servants, and guests were treated to pallets, or bare floors. Rope-strung supports tightened with a wooden peg (from which the phrase “sleep tight” derives) held mattresses stuffed with horsehair, straw, wool, and moss—or, at best, with goose feathers. Curtains mitigated cold winter drafts and helped shelter sleepers (or those engaged in other, personal nighttime activities). Beds and linens were labor-intensive to produce, or extremely expensive to buy. As “Bed Furnishings in Early America: An Intimate Look”—at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, in Hartford, Connecticut, further reveals: “Before the mid-twentieth century, a clean, comfortable bed was a luxury.”

Open through January 27, the show highlights textiles and furniture from the seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries. An “English bed furnishing set” from 1650-1700, which was transported to America, features an enclosure made of fustian valances and curtains embroidered with crewel yarn in a flamboyant vine-and-flower pattern. A miniature, scaled version of a New England high-post bed (ca. 1750-1765) features historically accurate red-gingham bed furnishings (above) made by Natalie Larson, an expert on historic textiles and reproductions based in Williamsburg, Virginia. Other exceptional handwork, which took artisans and homemakers countless hours to complete, is also on display in bed hangings and rugs, coverlets, and quilts.

 All told, the exhibit concludes that despite the bed’s central role in reproduction, birthing, sickness, and death, holding apart “a space for comfort, warmth, and security” was largely a status symbol reflecting a homeowner’s financial standing and specific physical and emotional needs.

Read more articles by Nell Porter-Brown

You might also like

A Paper House in Massachusetts

The 1920s Rockport cottage reflects resourceful ingenuity.

This Connecticut Mine Was Once a Prison

The underground Old New-Gate Prison quickly became “a school for crime.”

Harvard Film Archive Spotlights Japanese Director Mikio Naruse

A retrospective of the filmmaker’s works, from Floating Clouds to Flowing

Most popular

How MAGA Went Mainstream at Harvard

Trump, TikTok, and the pandemic are reshaping Gen Z politics.

Harvard Panel Debunks the Population Implosion Myth

Public health professors parse the evidence surrounding falling U.S. birth rates.

Harvard’s New Online Orientation Emphasizes Intellectual Paths

A summer course for first-years focuses on academic success, diverse viewpoints.

Explore More From Current Issue

Room filled with furniture made from tightly rolled newspaper sheets.

A Paper House in Massachusetts

The 1920s Rockport cottage reflects resourceful ingenuity.

Man, standing in small group of people outside the courthouse, holding a sign that reads "HANDS OFF HARVARD" in red letters

Harvard’s Summer in Court

What Columbia’s settlement means for the University

Catherine Zipf smiling, wearing striped shirt and dark sweater outdoors.

Preserving the History of Jim Crow Era Safe Havens

Architectural historian Catherine Zipf is building a database of Green Book sites.