Quaker Tapestry

Part of a series on
Quakerism
George Fox, founder of the Quakers
Notable individuals Susan B. Anthony Robert Barclay Hannah Jenkins Barnard Anthony Benezet Kenneth E. Boulding Howard Brinton John Cadbury Carla Denyer Levi Coffin Anne Conway James Dean Judi Dench William Edmundson Margaret Fell George Fox Elizabeth Fry Joseph John Gurney Edward Hicks Elias Hicks Henry Hodgkin Herbert Hoover Rufus Jones Thomas R. Kelly Benjamin Lay Lucretia Mott James Nayler Richard Nixon Parker Palmer Alice Paul Isaac Penington William Penn Robert Pleasants Bayard Rustin Jessamyn West John Greenleaf Whittier John Wilbur John Woolman
Meetings and other groups Yearly Meeting Monthly Meeting American Friends Service Committee A Quaker Action Group Britain Yearly Meeting Central Yearly Meeting of Friends Conservative Friends Evangelical Friends Church International Friends Committee on National Legislation Friends General Conference Friends United Meeting Friends World Committee for Consultation Quaker Council for European Affairs Quaker Peace and Social Witness Quaker United Nations Office Szechwan Yearly Meeting World Gathering of Young Friends
Testimonies Peace Equality Integrity ("Truth") Simplicity
By region North America Latin America Europe Africa
Other themes Faith and Practice or Book of Discipline Richmond Declaration of Faith Clerk Decision Making Businesses and charities History Inward light Meeting houses First Day of the Week New Birth Perfectionism Query Schools Science Tapestry Wedding Homosexuality Women
Christianity portal
v t e

The Quaker Tapestry consists of 77 panels illustrating the history of Quakerism from the 17th century to the present day. The idea of Quaker Anne Wynn-Wilson, the tapestry has a permanent home at the Friends Meeting House at Kendal, Cumbria, England.

The design was heavily influenced by the Bayeux Tapestry, and includes similar design choices, including three horizontal divisions within panels, embroidered outlines for faces and hands, and solid infilling of clothing, which is embroidered in the Bayeux technique. The tapestry is worked in crewel embroidery using woollen yarns on a handwoven woollen background. In addition to using four historic and well-known stitches (split stitch, stem stitch, chain stitch and Peking knot), Wynn-Wilson invented a new corded stitch, known as Quaker stitch, to allow for tight curves on the lettering.

Each panel measures 25 inches (64 cm) wide by 21 inches (53 cm) tall.

4,000 men, women and children from 15 countries worked on the panels between 1981 and 1989.^[1]

Panels have been toured in traveling exhibitions including a North American tour in 1993/1994. An exhibition of 39 panels in Ely Cathedral in 2012 attracted 11,273 visitors during its 27-day stay.

In October 2021, the museum was one of 142 sites across England to receive part of a £35-million injection into the government's Culture Recovery Fund.^[2]