History:

The muted colors of this overshot coverlet were made using natural dyes. Until the 1860s, color could only be obtained from natural goods, primarily plants. In the Appalachians, natural dyes were used well into the twentieth century. Browns were especially popular, as they usually did not require a mordant, a special chemical that makes the color last, and were easy to acquire.

Minnie Buchanan shared some of her knowledge about brown dyes with Foxfire students:

“They’d usually take ya know, to get their black or brown outta their walnut roots, ‘er the hulls or whatever they used. They’d just put in more to get their black an’ just a little an’ get their browns…My daughter gave me about ½ a bushel of walnuts an’ I took the hulls off them walnuts. I boiled ‘em about a hour after it [the water] got to boiling. I boiled my hulls a while first, an’ then I put my wool in an’ boiled it—‘bout an hour.”