The Atlas of World Embroidery: A Global Exploration of Heritage and Styles, Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood

The Atlas of World Embroidery is a sweeping visual and cultural journey through the art of needlework. Organised by geographic region, it reveals how embroidery has served as a universal language—from the quillwork of Indigenous North America, to Hungarian Matyó motifs, Indian zardozi, and the satin stitches of Han China. With more than 300 richly reproduced images, it emphasises both the visual beauty and symbolic complexity of motifs, colour, technique and regional style.

Vogelsang-Eastwood’s narrative weaves together past and present: she explores materials, tools, and methods, profiles makers and communities, and highlights how machine techniques have intersected with hand embroidery traditions. Its global scope invites readers to see embroidery not merely as decoration, but as identity, memory, and cross-cultural conversation.

About the Author
Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood is a design historian and textile archaeologist, serving as Director of the Textile Research Centre (TRC) in Leiden, Netherlands. She is also chief editor of the Bloomsbury World Encyclopedia of Embroidery series, with deep expertise in embroidery traditions, stitch techniques and textile heritage globally.

Publication date: February 2026
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Pages: 400
ISBN: 9780691261911

Dimensions: 21.59 x 3.56 x 27.43 cm