This coverlet is the only known intact example of work by Mealey and Leity, a pair of professional weavers who worked in Milwaukee around 1850. Coverlets like this one were created on a loom with a specialized mechanism known as a Jacquard attachment. Developed in France in 1804–1805 by Joseph-Marie Jacquard and popularized in America in the mid-1820s, this device used a series of punch cards to program the movement of the loom, creating an intricately patterned double-sided cloth.
Although the Jacquard attachment was a step towards automation, the process of making a coverlet was still a hands-on operation that required the skills of a professional weaver. With the rise of a more mechanized textile industry in the eastern United States, many professional coverlet weavers headed west to escape the increasing competition of the factory system and to tap new markets in the growing frontier states.