Towel or drying rack

Towel or drying rack

United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing (“Shakers”)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In Shaker communities, tenoned drying racks were less frequently produced than x-shaped folding racks. Their placement in retiring rooms, kitchens, laundries, and shops showed their essential place in the daily activity of the Shakers. While an object of great utility, the streamlined, geometric shaping on the rack uprights and trestle feet correspond to the Shakers’ pioneering design aesthetics and proto-modernism that inspired folk art circles and contemporary abstractionists. As a gift from the heirs of Edward "Ted" (1894-1964) and Faith E. (1887-1990) Andrews, this towel rack joins many Shaker works acquired from their collection by the Metropolitan Museum.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Towel or drying rackTowel or drying rackTowel or drying rackTowel or drying rackTowel or drying rack

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.