The National Museum Of The American Coverlet

Bedford, Penn.

:As dealers for the past several decades, Melinda and Laszlo Zongor dedicated themselves to their specialty, antique American woven coverlets. They organized exhibitions, wrote catalogs and engaged in ongoing research.

The Zongors recently renounced the for-profit world to devote themselves to a longtime dream, establishing the first independent, year-round institution exclusively devoted to the collection, display and study of American woven coverlets.

Supporters of the project include Edward Maeder, director of exhibitions and curator of textiles at Historic Deerfield in Massachusetts. Maeder is president of the National Museum of The American Coverlet's board of directors.

"The discussion began three years ago when I met the Zongors at the ADA-Historic Deerfield Antiques Show," Maeder recalls. "I've never known anyone more dedicated, passionate and committed to the goal of having a place where coverlets will be available for people to study and enjoy. At so many institutions, coverlets are behind locked doors in inaccessible storage."

Other directors include Eva Burnham, a Montreal-based costume and textile conservator and restorer; architect Stephen A. George; Jes Horwath, who is also active in the Colonial Coverlet Guild of America; dealers Frank J. Miele and Sumpter Priddy III; and C. Douglas Schmidt, president of the Cumberland Cultural Foundation, which oversees the C. William Gilchrist Museum of The Arts. Collector Jude Fera is an ex-officio director of the National Museum of the American Coverlet (NMAC). Martha Jack, a pioneer in coverlet stewardship, is an honorary director.

Melinda Zongor is the museum's director and curator. In 1988, she organized "Warm & Wonderful: The Jacquard Coverlet," the first commercial gallery display to present woven coverlets as art, at Hirschl & Adler Folk in Manhattan. In 2005, she compiled Coverlets at the Gilchrist: American Coverlets 1771–1889, available through the museum.

In time, the National Museum of the American Coverlet plans to hire a professional conservator and registrar. Most other tasks will be performed by volunteers.

Visitors got their first glimpse of the National Museum of The American Coverlet last spring, when an interim gallery opened in the 1859 Common School, a 30,000-square-foot, two-story red-brick building with an attached one-story annex in Bedford. The museum, which now encompasses the building's first floor, will formally open on Memorial Day weekend, May 26 and 27.

Planned to coincide with the opening is the 83rd annual meeting of the Colonial Coverlet Guild of America, an organization of collectors, researchers, students, weavers, spinners, dyers and dealers founded in 1924.

In addition to spinning and weaving demonstrations, the weekend will include talks by Priddy, whose book, American Fancy , was initially inspired by a coverlet marked "FANCY WEAVER"; Craufurd Goodwin, a North Carolina expert in Piedmont coverlets; and Kathie Mellinger Plack, who will discuss western Pennsylvania coverlets of the 1850s.