Cornelia Mee
{{short description|British textile designer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Cornelia Mee
| image =
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| other_names = Mrs. Mee
| birth_name = Cornelia Austin
| birth_date = 1815
| birth_place = Bath, Somerset
| death_date = 1875
| death_place = London
| occupation = Textile designer, author
| years_active =
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| notable_works =
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}}
Cornelia Mee (23 April 1815 – 1875), born Cornelia Austin, was a British knitting and crochet pattern designer and writer.
Early life
File:CorneliaMeeExercisesinKnitting.png
Cornelia Austin was born in Bath in 1815, the daughter of Thomas Austin and Sarah Shubert. Her father was a haberdasher, bookseller, and undertaker..{{Cite book|last=Ledbetter|first=Kathryn|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nGMpI6exqbIC&q=Cornelia+Mee&pg=PA161|title=Victorian Needlework|date=2012-01-06|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-38661-9|pages=68–69, 161|language=en}}
Career
Mee was one of the women who claimed to have invented crochet, and was a major figure in the popularization of various needlecrafts in the nineteenth century.{{Cite book|last=Thies|first=Sheryl|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XtITBwAAQBAJ&q=Cornelia+Mee&pg=PT18|title=Get Hooked on Tunisian Crochet: Learn How with 13 Projects|date=2011-03-22|publisher=Martingale|isbn=978-1-60468-242-7|language=en}}{{Cite journal|last=Van Remoortel|first=Marianne|date=2012|title=Threads of Life: Matilda Marian Pullan (1819-1862), Needlework Instruction, and the Periodical Press|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41638147|journal=Victorian Periodicals Review|volume=45|issue=3|pages=253–276|jstor=41638147|issn=0709-4698}} She is credited with publishing the first original English-language instructions for Tunisian crochet, which she called "Crochet a la Tricoter", or "Crochet on a Knitting Needle."{{Cite web|last=Karp|first=Cary|date=2020-09-15|title=Cornelia Mee's simpler Tunisian stitch|url=https://loopholes.blog/2020/09/tricot-ma1/|access-date=2020-11-13|website=Loopholes|language=en-US}}
File:Gauge of the various Sizes of Knitting Needles.png
Mee wrote illustrated books and pamphlets of knitting and crochet patterns and instructions, some with her younger sister Mary Battle Austin, including Mee's Companion to the Worktable (1844),{{Cite book|last=Mee|first=Cornelia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nOkDAAAAQAAJ|title=Mee's Companion to the work-table, containing selections in knitting, netting and crochet-work|date=1844|publisher=D. Bogue|language=en}} Crochet Explained and Illustrated (1846),{{Cite book|last=Mee|first=Cornelia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BzIEAAAAQAAJ|title=Crochet Explained and Illustrated: Second Series. With Numerous Engravings|date=1846|publisher=David Bogue, Fleet Street.|language=en}} Mrs. Mee's Exercises in Knitting (1846),{{Cite book|last=Mee|first=Cornelia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9vOqXLetx94C|title=Exercises in Knitting|date=1846|publisher=D. Bogue|language=en}} Crochet Collars (1846),{{Cite book|last=Mee|first=Cornelia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3KfXAgQelasC|title=Crochet collars|date=1846|publisher=D. Bogue|language=en}} Crochet Doilies and Edgings (1846),{{Cite book|last=Mee|first=Cornelia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CDIEAAAAQAAJ|title=Crochet doilies and edgings|date=1846|language=en}} Crochet Couvrettes and Collars (1847),{{Cite book|last=Mee|first=Cornelia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pr4ZqdJasL8C|title=Crochet Couvrettes and Collars|date=1847|language=en}} The Manual of Needlework (1854),{{Cite book|last=Mee|first=Cornelia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lpFHkgEACAAJ|title=The Manual of Needlework|date=1856|publisher=Aylott & Company|language=en}}{{Cite journal|date=January 1854|title=Notices of Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KU9AAAAAcAAJ&q=Cornelia+Mee&pg=PA141|journal=The Ragged School Union Magazine|volume=6|pages=141}} Manual of Knitting, Beautifully Illustrated (1860){{Cite book|last=Mee|first=Cornelia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kGQSaF91kJAC|title=The Knitter's Companion, Beautifully Illustrated|date=1863|publisher=Frederick Arnold|language=en}} The Queen's Winter Knitting Book (1862),{{Cite book|last1=Mee|first1=Cornelia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GPMHAAAAQAAJ|title=The queen's winter knitting book, by mrs. Mee & miss Austin. Ser. 3 of the 'Knitter's companion'.|last2=Austin|date=1862|language=en}} Tatting, or Frivolité (1862),{{Cite book|last1=Mee|first1=Cornelia|url=http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/pub/PDF/B-ME002.pdf|title=Tatting, or Frivolité|last2=Austin|first2=Mary|publisher=Frederick Arnold|year=1862}} and First Series of the Knitter's Companion (1867).[https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book//lookupname?key=Mee%2C%20Cornelia%2C%201815%2D1875 Online Books by Cornelia Mee], The Online Books Page.
Mee and her sister also edited a magazine, The Worktable,{{Cite journal|date=16 January 1847|title=Varieties|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oFAr-sdjqTYC&q=%22Mrs.+Mee%22+&pg=PA53|journal=The Literary Gazette and Journal of the Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, &c|pages=53}} and ran a wool shop in Bath. Her patterns were often used for making handcrafts to sell at charity fundraising events. She contributed an embroidered banner and other items displaying "much vigour and boldness"{{Cite news|date=1851-09-25|title=The Great Exhibition|pages=3|work=The Morning Chronicle|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63177186/the-great-exhibition/|access-date=2020-11-13|via=Newspapers.com}} to the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in 1851.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sBFx8QPDhhMC&q=Cornelia+Mee&pg=PA200|title=A Guide to the Great Exhibition Containing a Description of Every Principal Object of Interest with a Plan... Examining the Contents of the Crystal Palace|date=1851|publisher=G. Rontledge and Company|language=en}}{{Cite news|date=1851-10-25|title=Sales by Auction|pages=8|work=Daily News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63176943/sales-by-auction/|access-date=2020-11-13|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite journal|last=Schaffer|first=Talia|date=2008|title=Berlin Wool|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41220395|journal=Victorian Review|volume=34|issue=1|pages=38–43|jstor=41220395|issn=0848-1512}}
Personal life
Cornelia Austin married widower Charles Mee in 1837. She died in 1875, aged 60 years. Designs by Cornelia Mee are still worked by knitters and crocheters today, and there is a "Cornelia Mee" page on Ravelry to share those projects in that social network.{{Cite web|title=Designs by Cornelia Mee|url=https://www.ravelry.com/designers/cornelia-mee|access-date=2020-11-13|website=Ravelry}}
References
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Category:British people in knitting