Feature Article November 4, 2004
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A Tribute to Dorothy Burnham
by Ankaret Dean
Maberly lost one of its oldest and most respected residents last week when Dorothy Burnham passed on.
Dorothy moved here in 1996 to join her son and daughter-in-law, after a long and brilliant career as the Curator of Textiles at the Royal Ontario Museum. She was the author of ten books and a renowned specialist on Canadian textiles. Dorothy was also the recipient of the Order of Canada, the Diplome D'Honour and an Honourary Doctorate from Trent University.
Always excelling in drawing as a child, Dorothy, aged 18, started her career in 1929, making drawings of everything from axes to porcelain to textiles at the Royal Ontario Museum. By 1939 she had became the Deputy Keeper of Textiles and started her long love affair with Canadian textile history. Dorothy used her special gift to draw, research, and analyze weaving techniques for early Canadian weaving and clothing, and she also had a great gift for writing. These gifts were combined as she wrote as many as ten books during her long life of almost 93 years.
Her last book, Fascinating Challenges, was published in 2001, and for this book she worked with three other curators at the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa. Dorothy undertook the diagrams, researched pattern making and the techniques of sewing, weaving and decoration of the people from the north. The only reason that she had to finally end her beloved research was that she could no longer see the detail.
Her first book Keep me Warm One Night is still considered a leading authority in the hand weaving world. Just after the war she and her husband, Harold, noticed that the Royal Ontario Museum was receiving gifts of overshot coverlets, and they realized that there was no research available on these typically Canadian coverlets.
So, off they went to visit rural Ontario country fairs in an old army ambulance! At each fair they took samples of overshot coverlets which they displayed with a sign Do you have any coverlets like these? They were amazed at the interest, and they invited people to lend them their coverlets so that they could take them back to the museum and study the weave structures, the materials used and the techniques. The book took years to research and publish; when it was finally finished in 1972 it was a masterpiece.
Sadly Harold died shortly after the book was finished.
Dorothy continued the study and research of Canadian textiles. Her travels took her to British Columbia to study Doukabour textiles, and to the north to study the caribou skin clothing.
In 1986, Toronto hosted the Handweaving Guild of Americas conference, CONVERENCE. Over 2,000 people came to hear Dorothy give the Keynote address on Canadian Handweaving, When she had been asked, a couple of years earlier, if she would take on this project, her reply was Wellif I am still alive in 1986. She certainly was and for almost another 20 years we have had the pleasure of her quick wit and enthusiastic interest.
Recently she offered advice on the Schoolhouse Heritage Weaving project at MERA in McDonalds Corners, and never failed to ask me how it was progressing.
Never one to complain, she was a shining example of how to grow old gracefully, and we shall miss her wisdom and unfailing interest in Canadian textiles.
She leaves her family, Mark and Jim, Eva and Dawn
Her memorial service will be held at St. Albans in Maberly, on Sat. Nov. 6 at 12 noon, followed by a luncheon at the Maberly Community Hall. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to St. Albans Church, Maberly, or the Perth and District Public Library c/o Blair & Son, 15 Gore St. W., Perth, K7H 2L7
