Quaker Tapestry


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, Wynn-Wilson invented a new corded stitch, known as Quaker stitch, to allow for tight curves on the lettering.
Each panel measures wide by tall.
4,000 men, women and children from 15 countries worked on the panels between 1981 and 1989.
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.
Although the content of all 77 panels is widely published, only around 40 are on display at any one time, and close observers have noted that 23 have never been seen in public. This has led to some speculation in avant garde embroidery circles that the content may actually be transgressive in nature.

List of the panels

  1. The Prism
  2. George Fox's convincement
  3. James Nayler's call to ministry
  4. James Parnell: Meetings for Sufferers
  5. Richard Sellar
  6. The good ship 'Woodhouse'
  7. John Woolman
  8. Conscientious objection
  9. Manchester Conference 1895
  10. Oaths
  11. George Fox travels to Sedbergh
  12. Mary Fisher, Elizabeth Hooton
  13. John Bright
  14. Publishers of Truth
  15. Stephen Grellet
  16. Woodbrooke, Selly Oak, Birmingham
  17. Service Overseas
  18. Quaker Peace Action caravan
  19. Swarthmoor Hall, Ulverston
  20. Margaret Fell, Mother of Quakerism
  21. Keep your meetings
  22. Meeting houses
  23. Meeting Houses overseas
  24. Meeting Houses in the Community
  25. Quaker schools
  26. Marriage
  27. Pilgrimages
  28. Children and Young People
  29. The Leaveners
  30. George Fox at Lichfield, Pendle Hill
  31. Quaker Simplicity
  32. Personal Devotion
  33. Coalbrookdale
  34. Innocent Trades
  35. Quaker merchants
  36. Railways
  37. Quaker Botanists
  38. Quaker Doctors
  39. Quaker Scientists
  40. Industrial Welfare
  41. Query 19
  42. Scott Bader Commonwealth
  43. Fox at Ulverston
  44. John Bellers
  45. Banking
  46. Criminal Justice
  47. Elizabeth Fry
  48. Elizabeth Fry and the Patchwork Quilts
  49. First-day schools
  50. The Great Hunger
  51. Mary Hughes
  52. Unemployment
  53. Friends' Provident Institution
  54. William Allen
  55. Derby Gaol
  56. Trial of Penn and Meade
  57. Early Friends and slavery
  58. Daniel Wheeler
  59. Delegation to the Czar
  60. Relief Work: British Isles
  61. Relief of suffering
  62. Friends' Ambulance Unit
  63. Reconciliation
  64. Underground Railway
  65. William Penn and Pennsylvania
  66. America and Milford Haven meeting
  67. Quakers in Dolgellau
  68. Quakerism in New Zealand
  69. Workcamps
  70. Building the institutions of Peace
  71. Vigils for Peace
  72. World Conference 1991
  73. Friends and the Boer War
  74. Tasmania
  75. Friends in Canada
  76. The Netherlands 1940–1945
  77. World Family and Friends