This lace handkerchief was worked by Ojibwe women of Onigum on the Leech Lake Reservation and was carried by Edith Kuhlander of Hackensack, Minnesota at her wedding in 1926. Because hand made lace is extremely time-consuming to produce, lace was a luxury commodity. Nonetheless, the demand for lace burgeoned in the 19th century and stimulated a cottage industry of lace making throughout Europe and North America. In Minnesota, lace-making spread to Ojibwe women through the philanthropic endeavors begun by Sybil Carter, an Episcopalian missionary.

     Sybil Carter, who had learned the skill of lace making in Japan, formed the Sybil Carter Indian Lace Association in order to provide income to Native American families. She established schools on fifteen reservations throughout the United States where women were provided with materials and instruction. At the same time, Carter and her agents sold the lace work to the garment industry in New York City and to well-to-do individuals across the country. The first wealthy New Yorkers to sponsor a charitable sale in their personal homes were the Vanderbilts who admitted the public to their New York mansion for a $2.00 admission fee. The items offered at that sale were laces made under the auspices of the Sybil Carter Indian Lace Association. Profits of the association were used to hire more teachers and to provide an uninterrupted supply of materials.