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 162 items.
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1800 - 1815 Taunay Family's Framed Center Quilt Top
- Description
- This quilt top of unusual design, composed of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century fabrics, was acquired for the Collection in 1974. A piece of paper that accompanied the quilt top bears the notation: “Lappendehen Mtn West Indies familie Huh Taunay” and, “Taunay family heirloom.”
- The quilt top is pieced of elongated hexagons around a center square printed with a chinoisserie design. The hexagonal pieces are joined by minute overcast stitches sewn with linen thread. Still evident are traces of paper templates used to stiffen the hexagons during the piecing process. The judicious placement of the dark-colored hexagon pieces creates larger hexagon shapes in the overall design of the top. The 7-inch border is pieced of smaller even-sided printed hexagons arranged in rosettes against a background of white hexagons.
- The cotton fabrics used for the top present a sampler of printing techniques available in the early-nineteenth century. Block-printed, Indian-printed and painted, woven stripe and check, copperplate printed, and roller-printed cottons are all represented. The copper plate prints are from 1780 to 1800 and the block-prints from 1790 to 1810. The Indian cottons date from the late-eighteenthth century. The roller-prints are from the very-early-nineteenth century. A few areas have had replacement fabrics, and a few pieces are completely missing. The furnishing fabric border around the outer edge is block-printed, with penciled blue and yellow over blue enhancements. The array of fabrics used and the hexagonal pieced-work technique make this elegant quilt top an important example in the Collection.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1800-1815
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- TE*T17179
- accession number
- 313383
- catalog number
- T17179
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1800 - 1815 Indigo Wool Quilt
- Description
- This example of an early 19th-century whole cloth quilt has an unusual design. Four sprays of large flowers, leaves, and clusters of berries begin in each of the corners and meet in the center of the quilt. They are framed by a wide scrolling vine with a 2 ½ -inch feathered band along the outer edge.
- The fabric for this quilt was dyed blue with indigo, one of the oldest dyes used for textiles. Glazing, a process involving the use of a hot press on wool fabric, resulted in a smooth, lustrous fabric surface.
- The motifs in the design are all outline quilted, 8-9 stitches/inch. The background, parallel diagonal lines quilted ¼-inch apart, further enhances the overall design. The lining is a tan and blue plaid wool/cotton fabric. There is no binding the front and lining are turned in and sewn with a running stitch.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1800-1815
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1981.1020.08
- catalog number
- 1981.1020.08
- accession number
- 1981.1020
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1800 - 1820 Brown-Francis Family's Patriotic Quilt
- Description
- This early-nineteenth-century patriotic quilt was owned by members of the Brown-Frances family of Canterbury, Connecticut, before being donated to the Museum in 1947. The donor's grandmother had acquired possession of it along with other household furnishings that were in the eighteenth-century family homestead.
- The focus of the quilt, the large center block, is an adaptation of the Great Seal of the United States. An appliquéd eagle holding an arrow in one claw and a leafy sprig in the other dominates the block A shield with fifteen stars that indicate the number of states from June 1, 1792 until June 1, 1796 is behind the eagle. Appliquéd floral and bird motifs complete the block. This center block is set in a field of 4¾-inch blocks alternately plain and pieced in a nine-patch variation. The fabrics include thirty-eight roller-printed, plain colored and white cottons. It is quilted in parallel diagonal lines ¾-inch apart, 7 or 8 stitches per inch. From the late-eighteenth century the American eagle motif has signified patriotism and sacrifice. This quilt by an unknown Canturbury, Connecticut, quilt maker displays a unique rendition of that powerful symbol.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1800-1820
- quilter
- unknown
- ID Number
- TE*T13505
- accession number
- 168993
- catalog number
- T13505
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1800 - 1850 Pieced Quilt
- Description
- The 17-inch center block of this 18th-century quilt is appliquéd with a charming array of floral, geometric, and heart-shaped designs. It is surrounded by five pieced borders.
- Block-printed, copperplate-printed, Indian-painted, and roller-printed techniques are represented in the fabrics that were used for piecing. Plain-woven and pattern-woven white cottons are also evident. The 8 ½-inch blocks that make up the borders are pieced in a variety of patterns popular in the first half of the 19th century. It has a cotton filling and is quilted, 7 stitches/inch.
- The quilt is probably from southern New England, possibly Connecticut, where it was found. The many, many fabrics, different pieced block patterns, and appliquéd designs contribute to this sampler of 19th- century quilt making.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1800-1850
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1981.0417.04
- catalog number
- 1981.0417.04
- accession number
- 1981.0417
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1800 - 1850 Mary Jessop's Appliqued Quilt Top
- Description
- This quilt top was made at Vaux Hall, a plantation near Baltimore, Md., owned by Charles Jessop. The center square, composed of motifs printed about 1800 and appliquéd with linen thread, has been attributed to Mary Gorsuch Jessop. The corners, with chintz motifs printed about 1830 and sewn with cotton thread, were added later.
- The sixteen block-printed motifs applied to the center square are the work of John Hewson (1744-1821), one of the few 18th-century American textile printers who have been identified. Persuaded by Benjamin Franklin to leave England before the Revolutionary War, Hewson set up his printing works on the banks of the Delaware River near Philadelphia. There he worked with such skill and success that the British, who sought to eliminate competition for their products, posted a reward during the Revolutionary War for his body, dead or alive.
- Hewson survived to demonstrate fabric-printing, aboard a float, in the Grand Federal Procession held on July 4, 1788, in Philadelphia, to celebrate the adoption of the Constitution. William Bagnall ‘s The Textile Industries of the United States , published in 1893, states, “President Washington was accustomed to point with patriotic pride to domestic fabrics worn by Mrs. Washington and printed at the works of . . . Hewson.”
- Mary Gorsuch, born in Baltimore County, Md., in 1767, married Charles Jessop (1759-1828) in 1786. Their son, William, was born in 1800 about the same time that Charles bought 200 acres of land and built Vaux Hall. Mary died in 1830. William’s wife and Mary’s daughter-in-law, Cecilia Barry Jessop, may have added the corners to the quilt top in 1830. William inherited Vaux Hall and lived there until his own death in 1866 (or 1869). Vaux Hall, named for gardens in England, was destroyed in the 1930s in the construction of a dam for Baltimore.
- The quilt top was placed in a trunk with other finished family quilts and put in commercial storage. At a later date it was discovered that the lock of the trunk was broken and the finished quilts missing, leaving only this quilt top. The quilt top is significant for the John Hewson prints that were used for the appliqué.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1800-1850
- maker
- Jessop, Mary Gorsuch
- Barry, Cecelia
- ID Number
- TE*T15295
- catalog number
- T15295
- accession number
- 292866
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1806 Charlotte Roe's Child's Quilt
- Description
- Charlotte Merritt Roe embroidered her name as well as the place (Virgil) and date (1806) on this pieced child’s quilt. Charlotte Merritt was born in 1774 in Rye, Westchester County, New York. She married John Elting Roe in 1796. In 1797 Charlotte and her husband settled in Virgil, New York. They stayed on to rear five children. This quilt, made for one of their children, was passed down through the family before being donated to the Museum in 1984.
- An anecdote in Stories of Cortland County by Bertha E. Blodgett, Cortland, New York, published in 1932, relates the arrival of Charlotte and John Roe in Virgil.
- “In the spring of 1797 John E. Roe . . . came up the river and prepared a log cabin in Virgil. He . . . peeled bark for a roof and agreed with a man to put it on . . . then went down the Tioughnioga to get his wife, bringing her in a sleigh from Oxford . . . .
- When they came to the river at a place called Messengerville, they saw Mr. Chaplin’s house on the opposite bank. It was winter and the river was high, and the canoe that had been used in crossing was carried away. Mr. Chaplin’s hog trough was secured, and Mrs. Roe was safely carried over on it . . . whole day was consumed in negotiating the road over the hill to Virgil . . . when they arrived they were surprised to find their house without a covering and the snow deep on the floor . . . .
- In after years, Mrs. Roe enjoyed telling the story of her experience . . . and she always ended by saying, ‘And what do you think! The horses were so hungry that they ate the seats out of my nice rush-bottomed chairs.”
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1806
- quilter
- Roe, Charlotte
- ID Number
- 1984.0092.01
- catalog number
- 1984.0092.01
- accession number
- 1984.0092
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1812 - 1814 "Pinwheel" Quilt
- Description
- In 1962 a great-great-granddaughter of one of the makers of this quilt donated it to the Museum with the information that it had been made by women in the Adams family. They were said to have made the quilt while the men were away during the War of 1812. The donor’s great-grandfather was Jackson Adams, her great-great uncle, Joshua Adams, and her grandmother, Jane Adams.
- This quilt is made up of 7-inch blocks pieced in the "Pinwheel" pattern, alternating with plain white blocks. Detailed stuffed quilting embellishes the white blocks and border. Ten different quilting patterns are used for the plain blocks, all but one repeated.
- The 8-inch white border has a quilted-and-stuffed feathered vine with small quilted-and-stuffed floral motifs. White cotton fabric was used for the lining, cotton fiber for the filling and stuffing. The pieced blocks and border are quilted at 9 stitches per inch. The “Pinwheel” Quilt, with its contrast of elaborate stuffed quilting and simply pieced blocks, is a fine example of early 19th-century quilting making.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1812-1814
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- TE*T12815
- accession number
- 242609
- catalog number
- T12815
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1820 - 1840 Achsah Goodwin Wilkins's Appliqued Counterpane
- Description
- Achsah Goodwin Wilkins designed this appliquéd counterpane, which is similar to several that have been attributed to her skills. Written in ink in one corner of the lining is: “A. G. Wilkins 1820 / M. D. Davis 1890.” She gave many quilts and counterpanes to her daughters. These were later inherited by descendents. “M. D. Davis” is most likely Mary Dorsey Davis (1845-1939), daughter of Hester Ann Wilkins Davis, and granddaughter of Achsah Goodwin Wilkins.
- A bouquet of appliquéd water lilies and roses, cut from different chintz fabrics, is the focus of this counterpane. It is surrounded by two undulating wreaths. Eight floral sprays, cut from another chintz fabric, are between the two wreaths. The ground for the appliqué resembles quilting, but is a fancy weaving of a white cotton double cloth called Marseilles. A wide 7¾-inch roller-printed floral strip borders three sides of the counterpane. It is the only area that is lined.
- Achsah Goodwin, daughter of a wealthy merchant, William Goodwin of Lyde, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1775. Achsah became a member of the Methodist Church at eighteen, although it caused difficulties with her Episcopal family. On August 5, 1794, she married William Wilkins Jr. (1767-1832), also a Methodist. In addition to rearing a family, she was active in mission work and the establishment of a Methodist church in Baltimore. Achsah died in 1854.
- In William Rush Dunton’s Old Quilts, 1947, one of her granddaughters, Mary Dorsey Davis, provided notes from her mother, Hester Anne (Mrs. Allen Bowie Davis), detailing Achsah’s life. “My mother [Achsah] was a very superior woman, possessing strong sense, sound judgment, great dignity, remarkably self-possessed . . . . She suffered from cutaneous disease . . . most frequently [she] beguiled her weary hours of sickness by designing and laying out fancy spreads in which she displayed beautiful taste . . . . I, as well as many of her descendants, have choice specimens of her handiwork which we prize highly.” Achsah’s access to fine imported fabrics, attention to needlework details, and her design innovations are evident in this quilt, as well as others that are attributed to her. Her quilts are treasured additions to several quilt collections.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1820-1840
- maker
- Wilkins, Achsah Goodwin
- ID Number
- 1995.0011.01
- accession number
- 1995.0011
- catalog number
- 1995.0011.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1825 - 1835 Betsy Totten's "Rising Sun" Quilt
- Description
- While the precise name of an individual’s quilt pattern was seldom recorded in the nineteenth century, Mary “Betsy” Totten left no doubt about the name she gave this quilt or its importance to her when she prepared her will, circa 1860. “First, after all my lawful debts are paid and discharged, I give and bequeath to Rachel Mary Drake, daughter of William Drake, deceased, my large spread called the Rising Sun.” (Florence Peto in her book Historic Quilts ). More than 75 years later, Betsy Totten’s “Rising Sun” quilt was brought to the Smithsonian in 1938 by the donor, Marvel Matthes. She had been presented with this magnificent quilt by her godmother, Ellen Totten Butler.
- The “Rising Sun” pieced pattern in the center of Betsy’s quilt is an eight-pointed star measuring 76 inches across. It contains 648 diamond-shaped pieces made of eleven different roller-printed cottons arranged concentrically by color. Appliquéd between the points of the star are elaborate vases of flowers and birds, combining floral glazed chintzes with some of the same fabrics used in the star. A matching floral vine runs around the four sides of the quilt between a swag-and-bow border on the inside, and a chain along the outer edge. The appliquéd flower stems, vine, swags, bows, and chain are only 3/32-inch wide. The star and border appliqué are outline-quilted, with additional small floral motif quilting in the open spaces in the border. The initials “B T” are embroidered in red silk cross-stitch next to one of the corner vases.
- Mary “Betsy” Totten, daughter of Gilbert Totten (1740-1819) and Mary Butler (1739-1832), was born in either 1781 or 1783 in Staten Island, New York. Betsy was one of eight siblings. In the late eighteenth century, members of the Totten family bought land in the Staten Island area. About 1840 the area purchased by Gilbert, Betsy’s father, became known as Tottenville. The economy revolved around oyster fishing, shipbuilding and repair, and farming. Betsy married late in life, in her forties, first to Rev. Joseph Polhemus (1762-1827), and, after his death, to Matthew Williams (1780-1836). Betsy had no children of her own and her “Rising Sun” quilt was willed to her grandniece when she died in 1861.
- Mary "Betsy" Totten’s “Rising Sun”quilt is an important example of design and workmanship in the Collection. The fabrics she chose to create this quilt were reproduced in the late twentieth century for the inspiration of contemporary quilters. Three other quilts by Betsy are in the collections of the Staten Island Historical Society, and another in Cooperstown, New York. Betsy’s legacy is her needlework.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1825-1835
- maker
- Totten, Mary Betsy
- ID Number
- TE*T08153
- accession number
- 147358
- catalog number
- T08153
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1825 - 1835 Abbie Corey Brackett's Chintz Quilt
- Description
- According to information given with the donation in 1945, this quilt originally belonged to Abbie Corey Brackett. Abbie Corey [Corah] married Ichabod Brackett, a hired man on the Corey family farm in Plainfield, Conn., in 1816. “All her father, Squire Joshiah Corey would allow her to take from home, were the two quilts, which she made. He allowed her nothing more. The Coreys were Scotch.” While this may have explained the other “quilt,” a woven coverlet, this particular quilt dates from about 1825-1835.
- The quilt top consists of lengths of glazed, roller-printed cotton. The “Pillar Print” design is in red and brown, with an olive drab color added by surface roller. The combination of architectural and floral elements was particularly popular from 1825 to 1835 in American household furnishing fabrics. The quilt has a plain-weave white cotton lining and cotton fiber filling. Concentric diamonds and a quilting pattern variously known as “Rob Peter and Pay Paul,” or “Lafayette Orange Peel” or “Dolly Madison’s Workbox,” quilted at six stitches per inch, complete the quilt.
- Records indicate that Abigail Corey was born about 1789. She married Ichabod Brackett (about 1790-1862) 3 February 1816. Sadly, after his death, Abigail is listed on the 1870 census as “Nabby Brackett” born about 1787 and living in Dudley, Worcester, Mass., as a pauper. On the 1880 census she is listed as Abigail Brackett and an “inmate” in Dudley. The donor received this quilt and a woven coverlet from a friend of her mother’s, Mrs. Hattie Vinton Wright, who was the great-granddaughter of Abbie Corey Brackett. When the items arrived at the Museum in 1945, they were deemed “excellent examples representing types not duplicated in the collections.”
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1825-1835
- maker
- Brackett, Abbie Corey
- ID Number
- TE*T09126
- accession number
- 169638
- catalog number
- T09126
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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