LAUREN LAMENDOLA NAMED CURATOR OF MCCARL COVERLET COLLECTION AT SVC

Lauren Lamendola has been named curator of the Foster and Muriel McCarl Coverlet Collection at Saint Vincent College, according to an announcement by Father Rene M. Kollar, O.S.B., Dean of the Saint Vincent College School of Humanities and Fine Arts.

As curator, Ms. Lamendola will be responsible for the care, preservation and public exhibition of the extensive antique bed coverlet collection that was given to Saint Vincent in 2005 by the late Foster McCarl and his wife, Muriel, of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Ms. Lamendola will also be serving as liaison with area groups, organizing and coordinating educational programs for elementary and secondary schools.

A native of Mars, Ms. Lamendola attended Mars Area Senior High School and earned a bachelor of arts degree with honors in history with a minor in public history from Saint Vincent College in 2008. While in College, she participated in cross country, was a member of the orientation committee, the activities programming board and the music club (vice president). She also attained the dean’s list.

She earned a masters degree in public history, archival, museum and editing studies and a certificate in women and gender studies from Duquesne University in 2010. She was honored at Duquesne with membership in Phi Alpha Theta, the international honor society in history.

Ms. Lamendola, who began working in the Gallery as an undergraduate student, has had a lifelong interest in textiles and fashion. “One of my special interests in history is the antebellum era and most of the coverlets in the Saint Vincent collection fall within this period,” she noted. She began working full time in the McCarl Gallery following the retirement of Sara Feldbauer. She hopes to develop educational programs for both children and adults.

“My vision for the McCarl Gallery is to make it more public,” Ms. Lamendola said. “I want to execute more interpretive exhibits which utilize the coverlets to tell the stories about the people who lived in this region. I will also bring in other materials to enhance the display including prints, photographs and other materials.”

She is currently working on the next public exhibition, Art Reflecting Nature: Wildlife in Northeastern United States, which will feature coverlets that illustrate plants and animals that were common in this region including wild turkey, deer and birds. It opened June 2.

“There are so many interesting stories related to these coverlets,” Ms. Lamendola said. “One of them has an image of a hunter shooting a squirrel. This is significant because in 1749 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania passed a law to reduce the population of squirrels which were damaging farm crops by offering ‘a bounty of three pence’ for a squirrel pelt. However, hunters brought in 650,000 pelts and nearly bankrupt the state so the legislature had to repeal the law.”

Phone: 724-805-2188 • Fax: 724-805-2554

Hours: Saturdays and Sundays: By appointment depending on staff availability • Closed Mondays • Tuesdays to Fridays: Noon to 4 p.m.
Summer Hours: (Memorial Day to Labor Day): Tuesdays to Saturdays Noon to 3 p.m. and Wednesdays and Thursdays 6:30 to 8 p.m.

The Foster and Muriel McCarl Coverlet Gallery • Saint Vincent College • 300 Fraser Purchase Road •
Latrobe, PA 15650 • info@mccarlgalley.org