Mildred Cole Péladeau papers

Collection

Identifier: Coll. 4288

Staff Only

Scope and Content note

Collection documents the research and scholarship of Mildred Cole Péladeau, an expert on hooked rugs and the Maine artists and industries that popularized them. Contents include articles, correspondence, papers, photographs, slides, and digital files.

Dates

Creation: 1881 - 2017
Creation: Majority of material found within 1980 - 2017

Creator

Péladeau, Mildred Cole (Person)

Access

Unrestricted

Copyright

Access to collections at Maine Historical Society is not an authorization to publish. Rights and reproduction requests may be submitted in writing to the MHS Image Services Coordinator or Research & Administrative Librarian, subject to format.

Biographical note

Mildred Cole Péladeau was born in Lewiston, Maine, in 1928. She graduated from Lewiston High School and attended the Central Maine General Hospital School of Nursing and Michigan State University, graduating in 1950. Péladeau was a reporter for the Lewiston Daily Sun from 1962-1972, where she met Marius B. Péladeau, her future husband. The two married in 1972.

In 1973, Péladeau opened a needlecraft store in Hallowell. It was then that she became focused on hooked rugs and their development in Maine. She assisted with multiple exhibits on hooked rugs, and eventually curated three: Art UnderFoot: an exhibition of Waldoboro rugs at the American Textile History Museum (1999), Rug hooking in Maine and beyond at the Farnsworth Art Museum (2010), and Beyond rugs!, also at the Farnsworth (2011). In 2008, Péladeau published Rug Hooking in Maine, 1838-1940, a seminal text on the subject. As an independent scholar, author, guest curator, and antiques delaer, Péladeau wrote articles and exhibit catalogs, consulted, and gave lectures and presentations for over 40 years. She died in 2017 after a long illness with Parkinson’s disease.

Extent

2 Linear Feet (3 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in three series.

1. Writings and exhibits, 1927-2016
2. Research, 1881-2017
3. Digital files, 2003-2010

Provenance

Gift of Marius Péladeau, December 13, 2018 (acc. no. 2018.233).

Processing note

The collection arrived in clearly marked folders reflecting the purposes and uses of the material in Mildred Péladeau’s research and writings. Folder titles were retained throughout and no folders were combined, though folders were arranged into series by the archivist for ease of navigation. Newspaper clippings were photocopied and originals discarded. Photos were arranged in folders and sleeves as appropriate. Digital files were migrated to the MHS server, and are available upon request; original media has been retained (Box 3).

A significant portion of the gift was Mildred Péladeau’s collection of published works on hooked rugs. These publications were separated and added to the Brown Library collection.

An E. Ross & Co. machine hooked rug shuttle needle (wood) and a Sears, Roebuck Parisian hooked rug shuttle needle (metal) with extra blade and original box were separated and added to the MHS museum collection. These items can be located using the museum catalog.

Paperwork related to various gifts made to MHS by Mildred and Marius Péladeau between 2008 and 2014 was added to this collection's source file.

Note that dates, throughout the collection, reflect either the dates of creation for original items or the dates that reproductions or printouts were made by Mildred Péladeau. As a research collection, much of the material consists of photocopies or printouts of older material, and those dates are not reflected in date ranges.