Sewing Kit and Spool Box
c. 1938
Medium
watercolor, graphite, and pen and ink on paper
Dimensions
overall: 30.6 x 23 cm (12 1/16 x 9 1/16 in.) Original IAD Object: 5 1/2" high; 6" long; 6 1/4" deep
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.13502
Art Historical Context
**Sewing Kit and Sp Box** by Edward L Loper, created around 1938, captures the charm of everyday American craftsmanship through a meticulous rendering in watercolor, graphite, and and ink on paper (30.6 x 23 cm). This detailed depiction portrays a compact sewing kit and spool boxoriginally measuring 5½ inches high, 6 inches long, and 6¼ inches—highlighting the practical beauty of household objects central to domestic life in early 20th-century America. As part of the *Index of American Design*, a Federal Art Project under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) from 1935 to 1942, Loper's work...
About the Artist
Edward L. Loper
Edward Leroy Loper Sr. was born on April 7, 1916, in Wilmington, Delaware, to a poor family in the racially mixed Frogtown neighborhood, where he was raised primarily by his maternal grandmother. After graduating from Howard High School, the only secondary school available to African Americans in Delaware at the time, Loper received no formal artistic training initially but immersed himself in sel...