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Book Reading and Signing in Warm Springs, Virginia

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 22:28:01 GMT

Book reading and signing

June 17th from 2 PM to 4PM

Come to The Inn at Warm Springs to meet our Guest Speaker, author of Dancing at the Warm Springs Hotel.

Kathleen Curtis Wilson is an author, speaker, and international exhibition curator. For the past 40 years, she traveled in Southern Appalachia to write about people and places often overlooked, raising public awareness of diverse social, cultural, and economic issues in the region.

A Virginia Humanities Fellow, this is Wilson's 5th book.

Join us at:

12968 Sam Snead Hwy
Warm Springs, VA 24484
1-540-839-5351

theinnatwarmsprings.com

Book Signing in Warm Springs, Virginia

Fri, 27 Jan 2023 05:17:20 GMT

2023 Events start with a book signing event.

May 6th, 2023 - Book signing event at The Inn at Warm Springs, Warm Springs, Virginia .

More Information to follow, so please check back

2022 in Review

Fri, 30 Dec 2022 05:16:19 GMT

A look back at 2022

By the end of 2021, I had finished Dancing at the Warm Springs Hotel. Mariner Media agreed to publish the manuscript with delicately hand colored illustrations of the time period. Manuscript editing, formatting, and travel took up the first six months of 2022.

Covid delayed Convergence, Handweaver’s Guild of America’s annual conference for two years. I finally gave the Keynote address, Under the Cover of Tradition, to an audience of 500 on July 17, 2022. North Carolina weaver Allie Josephine Mast (1861-1936) was one of the highlighted artisans featured in the program.

A book signing event during the conference I met many convention participants and sold copies of all my books. I gave two Juror talks after judging, Mixed Media, a very creative artwork display at Convergence.

During the Virginia Highlands Festival in Abingdon, Virginia, I presented, “Textile Treasures for Southern Appalachia.” It was an opportunity to share the story behind of a quilt made by young enslaved women in East Tennessee, and a 1833 bedrug woven in Southwest Virginia. These were two of the many historic textiles I have uncovered during the last 30 years.

In September, I travelled in Croatia for two weeks.

In October, my husband and I moved to Blacksburg, Virginia.

Convergence 2022 - Keynote Speaker

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 16:49:09 GMT

Keynote Presentation: Kathleen Curtis Wilson

Monday July 18th 2022 - 7 PM to 9 PM

Tickets: $73 or Free with CVP, includes dinner, cash bar available

After 25 years documenting the hand woven textiles in Southern Appalachia, Kathleen Curtis Wilson has a treasure trove of photographs and stories to share, including photographs of a rare bed rug, a woven quilt made by two enslaved women in Tennessee, and a suit of clothing made of fabric woven c. 1820 in North Carolina.

She will share the fascinating story of two Appalachian women who wove the furnishings for the Lincoln bedroom in the Woodrow Wilson White House and show a few images of the crafts made during the earliest years of the settlement school movement.

With every piece of cloth, the history of the region is revealed. Kathleen will present a visual tour of the talent and diversity of the strong, resilient men and women who settled in Southern Appalachia.

Virginia Magazine of History & Biography Vol 129 No. 2

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 16:49:09 GMT

From Enslavement to Entrepreneurship in Appalachian Virginia

Beautiful and sassy, Alice Bolden was used to getting her own way. One hot summer day in 1932, she sashayed out of her family’s home in the black community of West Warm Springs, Virginia, wearing shorts. Her mother, Elizabeth Morris Bolden, looked up from her gardening. Mother and daughter locked eyes.

As the personal maid of a wealthy white woman, Alice spent summers at her employer’s mountain farm in Appalachian, Virginia, where her own family had deep roots. But Alice wintered with her employer in Montclair, New Jersey, and there, the willful young divorcée had learned new ways. She dyed her hair red, smoked unfiltered Camels, and spent her free time at Harlem jazz clubs, listening to Cab Callaway and Duke Ellington and sipping Four Roses whiskey. Alice had inherited a passion for nightlife and fashionable clothing. In the Northeast that year, two-piece sportswear outfits were all the rage. The more daring styles, designed for sporting activities like tennis and golf, exposed shoulders and bared legs. Alice liked the look, hence the shorts.

In Appalachia, however, economically and culturally light years removed from the cosmopolitan Northeast—this was inappropriate attire. And no one knew that better than Alice’s mother, an accomplished and successful dressmaker with a straight-laced sense of decorum and a proud sense of place. Elizabeth Bolden would brook no arguments. She threatened to switch her thirty-two-year-old daughter if she did not change clothes, and she meant it. Alice took off the shorts.

Kathleen Curtis Wilson, an authority on Appalachian crafts, is the author of several books, including Textile Art from Southern Appalachia: The Quiet Work of Women.

Coverlet Chat with Kathleen Curtis Wilson

Thu, 27 May 2021 16:49:09 GMT

On May 27, 2021, from 1:00 - 3:00pm

4 W. Main St. (2nd floor, enter under yellow awning)

For the past 35 years, Kathleen Curtis Wilson has documented, written, studied, and lectured on textile traditions in southern Appalachia.

Particularly, Wilson has revived the narrative regarding coverlets, the beautifully intricate fiber works, and the women who wove them.

Join us to explore these common, yet mysterious pieces that abound with heart.

For more information and to make reservations call (540)382-5644

or email: collections@montgomerymuseum.org

Attendance to the event is free.

Have your own family coverlets reviewed by Ms. Wilson for $20. Reservation Required for personal review.