Memories Stitched Over Time

McCain Library and Archives
University of Southern Mississippi



        In late 1949 Margret and Hans Rey were forced to abandon their third floor apartment on Washington Square. The land and buildings had been purchased by New York University (NYU). Within months the apartment house was gone, torn down to make way for NYU’s new law school. Imagine the sadness they must have felt, watching its destruction. Hans announced the change to friends and relatives with his 1950 holiday card. Before the couple moved out, however, Margret decided to preserve her memories of 42 Washington Square South by stitching them into a needlepoint wall hanging. Characteristically, Hans provided the design. Using graph paper, he sketched out a pattern for Margret to follow with her needle. 

McCain Library and Archives
University of Southern Mississippi



        The framed wall hanging, along with Hans’ graph paper pattern, came to the de Grummond Collection as part of the Rey literary estate. Together they provide not only an historic record of their home with its Washington Square “front yard,” but also a glimpse into Margret’s heart and what she held dear. We can only wonder what her thoughts and feelings were as Hans’ design came to life with her needle and yarn. No doubt she had a memory for each stitch—the laughter of a close friend invited for dinner, their annual New Year’s Eve celebration, the day a contract arrived for her first solo book, Pretzel—memories stitched together to last her for a lifetime. She displayed the completed piece in their new apartment on Washington Place and later in the house in Cambridge, Massachusetts.



McCain Library and Archives
University of Southern Mississippi



        Margret was never prouder than the day she became a U. S. citizen in 1946 and that first small apartment on Washington Square symbolized that new life—her new life, her new beginning—as an author in her own right, as a New Yorker, as an American.