Michelle Paquette (Massachusetts)

Enveloping

Embroidery
Designed and stitched by Michelle Paquette

From Dian Fossey’s personal correspondence to the Schwartzels, 1967-1976 and undated. Betty Schwartzel collection of Dian Fossey correspondence, photographs, and clippings, Sophia Smith Collection of Women’s History, SSC MS 00386, Smith College Special Collections, Northampton, Massachusetts

“This piece is an envelope from the Betty Schwartzel collection of Dian Fossey correspondence, photographs, and clippings, a collection held by Smith College Special Collections, which is now available online. I’ve stitched my own initials underneath the envelope, leaving them simultaneously hidden but still slightly visible beneath the white fabric. I was heavily involved in the process of making this material available online, and its corresponding description, but you won’t find my name on that anywhere.”

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Michelle Paquette is the metadata and technical services archivist at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

This embroidery is a stitched version of an air mail envelope from Dian Fossey and addressed to Betty Schwartzel. The envelope has two stamps with postmarks. The image of the envelope is stitched onto brown fabric with a white flower pattern. If you zoom in very closely, you can just make out a the dark place where the lettering of Michelle’s initials lies underneath the white envelope.