By Robbie LaFleur

I find it surprising that so many weavers have felt compelled to reproduce Norway’s most famous weaving, the Baldishol Tapestry. Many Baldishol replicas are in the U.S.: Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum has three full-sized replicas, and one is in storage at the White House, a gift from Norwegian-American women to President and Mrs. Coolidge. (Read more about those in “The Baldishol Tapestry–The White House Replica and Others.”)

Weaving a Baldishol tapestry is not a small commitment for a weaver; a full-sized replica is large at 46” x 80”. It is tricky in terms of technique; in particular, several outlined areas on the birds’ breasts and the back of the horse challenge even the most skilled tapestry weavers. Perhaps that’s why many weavers choose to make their own copies – to challenge their weaving skills? (1)

I learned of another reproduction of the Baldishol in the U.S. in 2021. It was located in Florida and presumably woven by Abbie Wetzel (1920-2002).

Abbie Wetzel was born in Massachusetts. According to her brief obituary, she was a veteran of the U.S. Navy, serving in World War II. She taught instrument flying to pilots. She was married to Robert Wetzel, an artist, Navy veteran, and producer of animated films. Bob and Abbie had no children. They lived in the Washington DC area for many years, later retiring in Winter Haven, Florida.

After Abbie died, Bob remarried. He died of cancer in 2004, and Abbie’s textile supplies and the Baldishol reproduction were left with his second wife, Mary Martin Wetzel. When Bob Wetzel died, much of the background story of the Baldishol replica was lost. After Abbie Wetzel’s death in 2002, the Baldishol replica remained in her husband’s family for two decades, carefully stored in Winter Haven, then Gainesville, Florida, and then Asheville, South Carolina.

Emily Mann, the granddaughter of Bob Wetzel’s second wife Mary, contacted me about the tapestry, believed to be woven by Abbie Wetzel. It seemed a bit baffling. What prompted Wetzel to take on such a large weaving and this image? Had she seen the original? Did she have Norwegian background? Was she an experienced tapestry weaver? 

The original Baldishol Tapestry is 46.5” tall by 80”. The Abbie Wetzel reproduction is approximately 50” by 70”, so it is a full-size replica. But this Baldishol tapestry has a very odd characteristic — the image was woven backwards! 

That didn’t seem right, and I suggested to Emily that perhaps she had sent me a photo of the back. But it was the front; she sent me photos clearly showing that unwoven ends were on the other side. That was also a bit odd. In the Norwegian billedvev [tapestry] tradition, the hanging ends on the backs of tapestries are woven in so that the reverse side is as beautiful as the front. 

Emily Mann inherited the tapestry, but after it was in storage for so many years, her family members had few details. They did know that Abbie Wetzel was not able to finish it, and Bob Wetzel paid someone to finish the weaving. When that was or who did it, Emily didn’t know.

I searched for more information on Abbie Wetzel. She was an active spinner and weaver and at one point owned five spinning wheels, according to a 1990 article in the Pensacola News Journal. She had been spinning for thirty years. She gave workshops on straw weaving and demonstrated spinning at her local library. Abbie compiled extensive natural dye notebooks and samples, which Emily inherited and passed on to an artist friend. 

Then I spent a whole day on the couch, peeling back layers of the internet….

It wasn’t Abbie Wetzel who began the Baldishol, It was a Norwegian-American weaver, Maria Mundal. And the person who finished weaving the tapestry was Mary Mahon from Orlando.

In an article in the Orlando Sentinel, Mary Mahon mentioned that it was Maria Mundal who started the tapestry. Mary Mahon and Abbie Wetzel were active members of the Weavers of Orlando; both are mentioned in issues of the guild newsletter, Fibergramme, which is archived online. It is interesting that Mary Mahon is working on a floor loom, not an upright tapestry loom. I thought she might just be weaving something else, for the purposes of a photo, but it looks like she is weaving tapestry. She is not weaving in the Norwegian tradition with butterflies; I see a tapestry bobbin and another small shuttle.

The article states that Mary Mahon had been working on it for three years, so probably beginning about 1996. The article noted that the original weaver, Maria Mundal, died more than 20 years previously (previous to 1999) and said it was an accident. 

What was the accident? I discovered the sad answer through the Norwegian National Library online, in an article from Nordisk Tidende, June 27, 1974. “Art Weaver Maria Mundal is Dead.” (My translation)

The renowned art weaver Maria Mundal died at Ullevaal Hospital in Oslo on June 11. She had been living in Alexandria, Virginia, and had earlier this summer traveled on vacation to Norway after a 40 year absence from her homeland. She turned 80 in October 1973. 

After a visit to the Munch Museum she was hit by a car and broke her collarbone. She was taken to the hospital. She developed complications and her life could not be saved. She died on June 11 and was buried in Vegårdshei in Aust-Agder, where her mother is also buried.

Maria Mundal had a strong wish to weave the Baldishol Tapestry, one of Norway’s most famous tapestries, through her whole life. It dates from the 12th century and was found in the Baldishol Church in Hedmark. and hangs in the Kunstindustri Museum [now part of the Nasjonalmuseet] in Oslo. She obtained the materials she needed and had begun the large work, but it was not completed. Now another person will be sought to finish it. Maria Mundal herself said that the Baldishol would be the greatest work of her life. 

So how did Maria Mundal’s Baldishol come to be with Abbie Wetzel? I guessed that Abbie was a tapestry student in one of Maria Mundal’s tapestry classes, or was a friend through a weavers group near Alexandria, Virginia, where Maria Mundal lived before her death. Wetzel lived in the DC area before retiring later to Florida.

I discussed the backwards Baldishol with Laurann Gilbertson, Curator at Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. She began digging into a cache of letters and records about Maria Mundal in their archives. There were letters from Abbie Wetzel, who had donated other weavings by Maria Mundal to the museum. The story of Maria Mundal’s Baldishol replica became much clearer, and I should have contacted Laurann earlier! In 2000 Abbie Wetzel was in communication with Vesterheim about the completed Baldishol replica. This was shortly before she died in 2002. The communication stopped. The Baldishol was stored away in Florida. And two decades later Emily Mann inherited it and began to seek information about it.

In a letter from the Vesterheim archive, Abbie Wetzel related more information about Mundal’s Baldishol replica. “Husfliden resisted selling Maria the handspun vegetal dyed yarn so it was Maria’s persistence that won out. She had been working on the tapestry for about a year before her untimely death and had completed about ¾ of it. The cartoon was lost in the handling of her estate and I obtained a copy from a friend in Norway.”

An article in Nordiske Tidende from October 4, 1973, profiled Mundal as a prominent Norwegian-American weaver, and ends with the following paragraph. “Maria has just received yarn from Norway and is ready to begin weaving a copy of the Baldishol Tapestry, a project she has looked forward to and feels will be one of her most important works.” If Maria Mundal began weaving the replica around October, 1973, when she was 79, and then wove ¾ of the tapestry before her accident in Oslo in March, 1974, that was a fast weaving pace!

But why was the image backwards?

A question remained: If Maria Mundal began the tapestry, and she learned to weave as a child, in an unbroken tradition from her mother, grandmother, and as one article said, weavers back to Viking times, why would she leave tails on the back of a tapestry? That is against Norwegian tapestry history and technique. And if weaving the Baldishol Tapestry was a lifelong goal of Mundal, why would she weave it backwards? I have a theory. 

I believe Maria Mundal was weaving the tapestry from the front, left the tails of each color on the front, and planned to weave in all the ends (like a good Norwegian). But the person who finished weaving the tapestry (Mary Mahon, and perhaps also Abbie Wetzel) didn’t know that was supposed to be done. Most American tapestry weavers don’t follow that tradition. I looked more closely at one of the detail photos, showing one end of the tapestry, and it looks like some ends have been woven in, just not cut off. If all the ends can be woven in – voila! – the horseman will not be riding backwards.

Emily Mann is donating the Baldishol replica to Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, which has a number of other pieces woven by Maria Mundal. Maria Mundal would be pleased, no doubt, although her initial hope was that it would be displayed in the Norwegian Embassy in Washington, DC, or at the United Nations. And Abbie Wetzel, who had been a good friend to Maria Mundal, would be happy to know that the completed Baldishol will be part of the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum collection. (2)

Abbie Wetzel once wrote to Laurann Gilbertson, “My experience as a handspinner and handweaver has contributed to my respect for these crafts associated with these creative endeavors. When it is the part of the lives of many generations, as in a museum, it evokes reverence and a joy of the spirit, doesn’t it?”

(Robbie bio)

(1) Weavers in Norway continue to challenge themselves by weaving Baldishol replicas. See “From 1180 to 2024 – Norwegian Weavers are still Committed to the Baldishol Tapestry.” robbielafleur.com, April 22, 2024.

(2) Members of the Minnesota Weavers Guild of Minnesota Scandinavian Weavers Study Group will weave in the loose threads on Mundal’s tapestry, to fulfill her strong wish to weave a Baldishol replica.

October 2025