By now, I have written so much about my favorite research subject, Mrs. Webster, that you probably realize that she was a woman of faith. As a professor of religious studies at the college level, she didn’t just pretend to be a Christian, like so many do. She lived what she believed.
In writing to her nephew in 1923, she shared a “sentiment” that she always kept on her desk for inspiration. In part, it says:
Do your best loyally and cheerfully
and suffer yourself to feel no anxiety or fear.
Your times are in God’s hands.
He has assigned you your place.
He will direct your paths.
Ellen had a sense of self and purpose, two traits that may have set her above the crowd. She was determined to succeed, in all that she attempted. I believe that I have been so attracted to the study of her life because I have so much in common with her, in her activities of life: teaching, writing, quilting, being family-oriented, and always seeking to share knowledge about so many topics. Ellen had a sense that a greater power was directing her steps. “He has assigned you your place,” conveys a sense of resignation to exist in the “place” where one finds oneself.
Every time I look through Ellen’s writings, I find some tidbit of wisdom or some new insight. Her life has been a marvelous study, and evidently one that I was destined to discover and explore. She was well-known in her time but slipped from view and was actually misnamed “Emily Webster” for at least a ten year period, in which no more information could be located.
Ellen was quite fond of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poetry. It is no wonder that she was aware of him. He often stopped at an Inn and Tavern that was run by the family of her two friends. One statement that Emerson made is this: “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” A sense of purpose helps us to be ourselves. Then, we are not subject to the political whimsy of approving or disapproving others. We become our own point of reference.
Yes, rugged individualism sets the writer and the creative person apart, in a world of their own, a world for others to reckon with or ignore. Either way, it matters not. The utmost goal should be a sense of loyalty to oneself and to the path we all seek: to leaving a legacy for our children, our family, and perhaps the greater world. Ellen Webster created her own legacy just be being who she was and doing what she chose in this life. I am happy to have rediscovered her, to to put her life into perspective for others, and to share her life’s consummate meaning through my own writings.
I will be available in the Fall for lectures, illustrated with projected images, as well as actual quilt samples and ephemera. I will be presenting these talks to groups within a reasonable drive of my home in Concord, NH. I look forward to sharing information, as well as additional discoveries made since the publication of my book in 2008.
Patricia Cummings, quilt historian
pat@quiltersmuse.com
603 226-2887
