National Quilt Collection - Videos
The National Quilt Collection, part of the Division of Home and Community Life's Textile Collection at the National Museum of American History, had its beginnings in the 1890s. Three quilts were included in a larger collection of 18th- and 19th- century household and costume items from one Stonington, Connecticut family. From this early beginning, the Collection has grown to more than 400 quilts and quilt-related items, mainly of American origin. Most of the contributions have come to the Museum as gifts, many from the quilt-makers' families. The quilts are part of a lasting material record of the American experience, and are preserved in perpetuity for all Americans. As few of the quilts are on exhibition at any given time, this film provides an overview, in quilt storage, of the behind-the-scenes activities of the staff and volunteers as they work with this rich and interesting collection.
Quilts were made primarily by women, and have played a large part in revealing evidence of the circumstances of their lives: economic levels, the goods available to them and their increasing consumerism, their thrift and extravagance, the opportunity for self-expression in an acceptable activity, their schooling and family education and instruction, their group activities, personal identity and reward, and skills.
Some of the quilts reflect very personal interests and concerns; others express political and societal concerns such as patriotism, anti-slavery sentiments, war and peace. Many quilts in the collection have inscriptions that leave us a textile record expressing the interests and feelings of the makers. Others provided the makers an opportunity for artistic expression in a practical endeavor.
Altogether, the collection shows the progression and notable phases in American quilt-making; provides a history of materials available to the quilt makers and of the techniques practiced; illustrates many social, cultural, technological, and economic influences affecting quilts made and used in America; and contributes to the illumination of American life, family, community, and country.
The Division of Home and Community Life continues its long term mission to maintain and develop research-based collections that document and preserve American stories through family, community, biographical/individual oral histories and other materials. The quilt collection, for the most part, represents the middle class and affluent of the eastern half of the country, rather than a potpourri of the widely diverse population of the nation. We should like to encourage viewers to come forward with quilts and other needlework, to donate or to be recorded, with histories that contribute to our awareness of the rich diversity of the people who came to live here, the traditions they brought and carry on, and the ways in which they adopted the endeavors already here. Please contact us at bowmand@si.edu.
Videos
This virtual tour was made possible by a grant from Patty Stonesifer and Michael Kinsley through The Seattle Foundation.
The gift was made in honor of Mrs. Frances Quigley.
Smithsonian National Quilt Collection: An Overview
Smithsonian National Quilt Collection: Quilt Scene Investigation
In the Textile Analysis Lab, Kathy Dirks demonstrates how technical analyses of quilts with scientific equipment is used for identification and verification
Smithsonian National Quilt Collection: Quilt Care
Kathy Dirks shows the quilt storage room, and the cabinets and materials used in housing the collection.
Smithsonian National Quilt Collection: Machine Quilting
Barbara Janssen shows the patent model of a Grover & Baker sewing machine and explains how the stitch it produced helped to determine the probable date of a quilt in the collection.
Smithsonian National Quilt Collection: Civil War Sunday School Quilt
Virginia Eisemon discusses the history of a quilt made by a Maine Sunday school class for the benefit of hospitalized Union soldiers
Smithsonian National Quilt Collection: Lydia Finnell's Star Quilt
Sheryl DeJong identifies the techniques and stitches in a late 19th-century crazypatch quilt and discusses the availability of materials, patterns, and instructions at the time.
Links
NMAH Collections Site
Quilts, Counterpanes and Throws: A Selection from the National Collection
NMAH quilts in the general Smithsonian Collections
"National Quilt Collection - Videos" showing 3 items.
1790 - 1799 Esther Wheat's Wool Quilt
- Description
- Esther Wheat's quilt is an example of a glazed wool fabric, not only used for bedding but also petticoats in the eighteenth century. The shiny surface of the quilt top was achieved by calendering, a process of applying heat and pressure with metal plates or rollers to a worsted fabric. In Esther's quilt the high sheen of the fabric enhanced the elaborate quilting of the large feathered heart and two pineapples surrounded by a scrolling vine with flowers. According to the donor, Esther Wheat Lee's great-great-granddaughter, the original plain weave yellow wool lining wore thin and was replaced by Esther's daughter, Olive Lee Doolittle. A thin layer of cotton fiber filling was added before the second lining of red twill weave cotton and wool was quilted to the original lining, but not through the quilt top.
- Esther Wheat made this quilted indigo-blue wool bed cover for her dower chest in the 1790s. Esther, a twin, was born in 1774 in Conway, Massachusetts. She married Benjamin Lee in 1799 and died at Canastota, New York in 1847. Esther's quilt was passed down through five generations of women before being donated to the Smithsonian in 1973.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1790-1799
- quilter
- Wheat, Esther
- ID Number
- TE*T16380
- catalog number
- T16380.000
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1790 - 1810 Clara Harrison's Resist-dyed Cotton Quilt
- Description
- The quilt is said to have been made by Clara Harrison of Middlebury, Connecticut. The top of this quilt is of indigo resist-dyed cotton that probably dates from the mid-eighteenth century. The fabrics used for this quilt were most likely sections of bed furniture and then re-used for this quilt in the late-eighteenth or very-early-nineteenth century. Bed furniture may have included curtains at the sides, head, and foot that could enclose the whole bed, a bed cover, and valances around the top and base. The lining of this quilt is linen, with a carded wool filling. It is quilted five or six stitches to the inch.
- To obtain the design in the fabric, a dye-resistant substance was applied to the area that was not to be colored. It appears that the resist paste was both block printed and painted on this cotton fabric. The fabric was then dipped in an indigo dye. To achieve the two shades of blue, the lighter blue was dyed first, then covered with the resist and the fabric was dipped again for the darker blue. The resist was then removed, leaving the background without color. The indigo resist dyed cotton used for Clara Harrison's quilt is an example of recycling valuable fabrics when they are no longer suitable; too worn, faded or out of fashion for their original purpose.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1790-1810
- quilter
- Harrison, Clara
- ID Number
- TE*T14268
- catalog number
- T14268
- accession number
- 277125
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1840 - 1860 Hasbrouck Family's Applique Counterpane
- Description
- This counterpane, with a version of the “Tree of Life” motif, portrays a vignette of family life in the mid-nineteenth century. It was said to have been made for the Hasbrouck family by an Englishwoman. In the 1870 and 1880 censuses, Mary Ward, who was born in Ireland, lived with them and worked as a domestic servant. Perhaps the counterpane was made by her or Elisabeth Tompson, who is listed as part of the Hasbrouck household on the 1860 census. In 1975, the Smithsonian acquired the counterpane from Josiah and Ellen Hasbrouck’s grand-daughter, Margaret Blauvelt Hasbrouck Elliot.
- Block- and roller-printed dress and furnishing cottons from 1800 to 1845 are used for the design. The ground is white cotton stamped or printed “Fine Sheeting” with the number “31” in a wreath of leaves, and a vase of flowers on a platform. Embroidered details on the counterpane are worked in both silk and cotton. The border is appliquéd with a flowering vine, and the counterpane is edged with appliquéd scallops.
- Josiah Hasbrouck was born in 1830. He married Ellen Jane Blauvelt in 1856, and had five sons, the first of whom died in infancy. They lived in Esopus, Port Ewen, Ulster County, New York, where Josiah Hasbrouck was a physician. The idyllic scene may have represented Josiah and Ellen Hasbrouck and their four sons Walter, John, Gilbert, and Josiah enjoying the banks of the nearby Hudson River.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1840-1860
- quilter
- unknown
- ID Number
- TE*T17737
- accession number
- 319091
- catalog number
- T17737
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center