Maria Margaret Pollen

Born in 1838, Maria Margaret Pollen, often known as Minnie, became associated with the study and collection of decorative arts. She is especially noted for her expertise in historic textiles and lace, a field in which she built a strong reputation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

She is best known for Seven Centuries of Lace (1908), a work that helped document the history of lace across long periods of European craftsmanship. Contemporary records also describe her as a collector and an authority on textile history, showing how closely her writing grew out of practical knowledge as well as research.

Although she is not widely known today, her work remains part of the record of how decorative arts were studied and valued in her time. She died around 1919, leaving behind a legacy tied to the preservation and interpretation of historic textile arts.