Self-Taught Designer Marguerita Mergentime Literally Brought Modernism to the Table in America

People once flocked to see her typographic textiles and bought her work by the armload — so why don’t you know who she is?

By Madeleine Morley

Sixty years ago at the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco, a curious wall hanging in the fair’s decorative arts exhibition caused an unexpected stir. Crowds gathered underneath it, chuckling to themselves or debating with one another over the words printed on the silk-screened fabric. The unusual show-stopper was made by a woman named Marguerita Mergentime, a self-trained New York City designer whose known work consisted mainly of table linens, and yet here she was, alongside tapestries and textiles by the world’s foremost designers.

Measuring nine feet long and nearly five feet wide, “Americana” is composed not of visual patterns but of 360 phrases culled from American culture and politics, all densely set together in alternating sections of bold Futura capitals followed by rows of elaborate cursive. “Coca-Cola,” “clam chowder” “Boston baked beans,” “jaywalkers,” “free speech,” “state university,” “Republicans,” “Democrats,” “Glamor Girls” — whether you love a phrase or hate it, there’s something…