Kingswood School Cranbrook "Festival of the May Queen" Tapestry

The Festival of the May Queen Tapestry was designed as the focal point for the Kingswood School Cranbrook dining hall and is considered to one of the most important American textiles of the 20th century. It was woven by the Swedish weavers at Studio Loja Saarinen and took 1,200 hours to complete.

When Kingswood School for Girls was built in 1931, Loja worked closely with Eliel to design numerous rugs, window treatments and fabrics for the entire school. This was Studio Loja Saarinen’s largest commission.

Established in 1928 and rooted in the English Arts and Crafts movement, the Cranbrook Arts and Crafts Studios produced handmade objects—furniture, silver, ironwork, prints, book bindings, and textiles—for a growing campus. Founded by philanthropists and newspaper publishers Ellen Scripps Booth and George Gough Booth, between 1922 and 1942, Cranbrook developed into an intentional community of schools, museums, and a graduate art academy.

Studio Loja Saarinen, led by its namesake Finnish American sculptor and textile artist, was responsible for handweaving dozens of rugs, hundreds of curtains, bolts of upholstery fabric, and more for Cranbrook and for retail sale.

Loja Saarinen managed her Studio as a modern artist-entrepreneur, providing her own designs and color samples, coordinating designs by others, innovating the Studio’s looms, and procuring materials. She also staged international exhibitions to promote her workshop and teaching departments.

Swedish designer Maija Andersson-Wirde immigrated to be Shop Supervisor for Saarinen. Wirde brought a modern design sensibility and enormous technical expertise, attracting more than a dozen young Swedish women to the Studio. Many lived on Cranbrook’s campus, a cohesive total work of art designed by Loja and her husband, architect and educator Eliel Saarinen.

Loja Saarinen’s legacy continues today in the Fiber Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art and Weaving Room at Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School, both part of Cranbrook Educational Community. Learn more about the Studio’s textiles online or in person through Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, or seasonal tours of the restored Saarinen House.

Kevin Adkisson
Curator
Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research
April 2024