National Quilt Collection - Introduction
"Quilt": A cover or garment made by putting wool, cotton or other substance between two cloths and sewing them together. An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, LL.D., New York 1828.
The National Quilt Collection incorporates quilts from various ethnic groups and social classes, for quilts are not the domain of a specific race or class, but can be a part of anyone’s heritage and treasured as such. Whether of rich or humble fabrics, large in size or small, expertly crafted or not, well-worn or pristine, quilts in the National Quilt Collection provide a textile narrative that contributes to America’s complex and diverse history. The variety and scope of the collection provides a rich resource for researchers, artists, quilt-makers and others.
Part of the Division of Home and Community Life textiles collection, the National Quilt Collection had its beginnings in the 1890s. Three quilts were included in a larger collection of 18th- and 19th-century household and costume items donated by John Brenton Copp of Stonington, Connecticut. From this early beginning, the collection has grown to more than 500 quilts and quilt-related items, mainly of American origin, with examples from many states, including Alaska and Hawaii. Most of the contributions have come to the Museum as gifts, and many of those are from the quilt-makers’ families. The collection illustrates needlework techniques, materials, fabric designs and processes, styles and patterns used for quilt-making in the past 250 years. The collection also documents the work of specific quilt-makers and commemorates events in American history.
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"National Quilt Collection - Introduction" showing 15 items.
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1825 - 1840 Susan Strong's "Great Seal" Quilt
- Description
- An appliquéd and embroidered adaptation of the Great Seal of the United States centers this cotton quilt made by Susan Strong in the early second quarter of the nineteenth century. Susan probably made this quilt in Ohio, where her family moved prior to 1820. The Great Seal has been in use since 1782 to authenticate documents issued by the United States government. Adaptations of this patriotic motif, a bald eagle with its wings spread, have been used on many quilts.
- In Susan’s adaptation, the eagle holds vines in its talons and beak instead of the arrows, olive branch, and banner with E Pluribus Unum that are found on the traditional motif. The thirteen appliquéd 8-pointed stars above the eagle represent the thirteen colonies. The center panel is framed by three borders, each 7½-inches wide. They are appliquéd with the same design of flowering vines growing from corner vases. Two fabrics, a white cotton and roller-printed discharge white on blue cotton, are used alternately for the appliqué and the background. The shield and details on the eagle’s head are embroidered with silk thread in chain and satin stitches. Quilting is 6 stitches to the inch, in various patterns. This patriotic quilt is an example of an important design motif used to decorate many objects during the early part of the nineteenth century.
- Susan Strong was born on July 4, 1809, in Frederick County, Maryland. She is listed among the pioneers in Richland County, Ohio, those who lived in the county prior to 1820. Charles, George, and John Strong of Maryland are among the 1818 listing of property owners in Jefferson Township. Susan married William Bell (1805-1847) on December 6, 1831. William was the son of Robert Bell, an early developer (1814) of the town of Bellville, Ohio. They had six children, two boys and four girls (all of whom taught school). In 1840 they moved to Hancock County, but Susan returned to Bellville after the death of William in 1847. She did not remarry and later lived with her daughter, Sarah (Mrs. Charles H. Dewey), in Omaha, Nebraska. Susan died in 1875, at age 66.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1825-1840
- maker
- Strong, Susan
- ID Number
- TE*T14833
- catalog number
- T14833
- accession number
- 283467
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1830 - 1850 Stenciled Child's Counterpane
- Description
- Stenciling was popular as a decorative technique in the early 19th century. This example, possibly made for a crib, is not quilted, but has some linen cloth and thin cotton wadding between the cotton pieced top and linen lining. At least 13 different templates were used in different combinations to create an overall design. A label, now missing, written in the late 19th century read: “George Jones infant quilt Ohio.”
- Sixty-three 6-inch blocks, alternately plain and stenciled, comprise the top. One motif, a tree with fruit, appears on six blocks, three on either side. Other stenciled motifs, in green, blue, rose, and yellow, are more randomly placed. It is bound with two different roller-printed, ¾-inch floral strips folded over the edges.
- The bright, cheerful stenciled motifs found on this child’s counterpane are similar to those found on floor cloths, furniture, and other home accessories of the period. The stenciling technique, using paints, brushes, and templates, was a convenient way to bring color and interest to everyday objects.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1830-1850
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1995.0011.03
- accession number
- 1995.0011
- catalog number
- 1995.0011.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1840 - 1850 Mary Ann Bishop's "Wreath of Roses" Appliqued Quilt
- Description
- In the mid-nineteenth century, Mary Ann Bishop appliquéd this “Wreath of Roses” quilt in the then popular red and green combination of fabrics. Nine 18-inch blocks appliquéd with wreaths of roses are separated by 5½-inch plain white sashing. Eight-pointed stars are appliquéd at the sashing intersections. The 8-inch quilt border is appliquéd with three-lobed leaves on an undulating vine. Plain-weave white and red cottons and a roller-printed cotton of brown dots on a green ground were used for the quilt. Diagonal grid and line quilting, 10 stitches to the inch, provides a contrast to the quilted feathered leaves on the sashing. Two gradually curved S-shaped wooden templates, also donated to the Collection, were used for marking the quilting pattern.
- Mary Ann Gotschall was born July 7, 1819. She married Hiram H. Bishop (1818-1897) on January 31, 1842, in Harrison County, Ohio. He received his medical training at Starling Medical College in Columbus, Ohio, in the late 1840s. Lyne Starling (1784-1848) was the founder of the hospital and medical school, a new concept at that time of providing medical education and patient care in one facility. During the Civil War, from June 1864 to March 1865, Hiram was contracted as an Acting Assistant Surgeon at the Totten General Hospital, Louisville, Kentucky. In March of 1865, when he left, the hospital had over 6,500 patients and fewer than 100 surgeons.
- Mary and Hiram reared four children; John (b. 1843), Naomi (b. 1845), Mary (b. 1848), and Luie (b. 1860). Mary Ann died March 9, 1915, and is buried in the Wilkesville Cemetery. Mary Ann Bishop’s quilt in the “Wreath of Roses” pattern is one of three quilts in the collection that were donated to the Smithsonian by her granddaughter, Maude M. Fierce, in 1936 and 1937.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1840-1850
- maker
- Bishop, Mary Ann Gotschall
- ID Number
- TE*T07956
- accession number
- 143694
- catalog number
- T07956
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1850 - 1854 Mary C. Pickering's Applique Quilt
- Description
- In the mid-nineteenth century, Mary Carpenter Pickering made this appliquéd quilt while living in St. Clairsville, Ohio. According to family information, she began work on the quilt when a friend, John Bruce Bell, left St. Clairsville to accompany a wagon train to the Oregon Territory. He returned eight years later, and they were married. Her grandson, Robert S. Bell, wrote that Mary made the quilt “to make the time go more quickly” while John Bell was away in the Oregon Territory. The quilt is said to have won a blue ribbon at the Ohio State Fair in the early 1850s.
- Baskets of flowers are appliquéd on nine blocks. These motifs are raw-edged, held down by close buttonhole stitching. The blocks alternate with all-white blocks that feature stuffed motifs of fruit and flower baskets, grapes and leaves, sprays of leaves and flowers, and a wreath. An appliquéd flowering-vine border completes the overall design of the quilt.
- The background quilting patterns are parallel horizontal and diagonal lines about ¼-inch apart, 13 stitches to the inch. Roller-printed cottons are used for appliquéd motifs; the lining is plain white cotton. “Mary C. Pickering. St. Clairsville Ohio” is prominently back-stitched in black silk on one of the white blocks.
- Mary Carpenter Pickering was born in Belmont County, Ohio, in 1831. She married John Bruce Bell on September 3, 1861, at New Athens, Ohio. Shortly after their marriage, John Bell joined the Union Army in 1862 for service in the Civil War. He was honorably discharged from the army in 1863 with disabilities that lasted for the rest of his life. They moved to Keokuk County, Iowa, in 1864 and raised nine children, three still living in the 1890s. Mary died in 1900. Her prize-winning appliquéd quilt was handed down in her family for three generations before being donated to the Smithsonian in 1981.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1850-1854
- quilter
- Pickering, Mary Carpenter
- ID Number
- 1981.0334.01
- catalog number
- 1981.0334.01
- accession number
- 1981.0334
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1850 - 1860 Esther Coates Wileman's Child's Quilt
- Description
- Elizabeth Coates Wileman made this pieced and appliquéd child's quilt in the mid-nineteenth century while living in Ohio. Sixteen blocks are pieced of red, green, yellow and white printed cottons in a Carpenter's Wheel pattern. These blocks are set diagonally with blue and white printed cotton squares and triangles. Two appliquéd sawtooth edges, one red and one green, complete the 5½-inch border.
- Esther Coates, a Quaker, was born in Coatesville, Pennsylvania in 1817. She married Abram G. Wileman in 1844 in Massillon, Ohio, they divorced in 1858. They had two children Flora born in 1850, who died as a young child and Erasmus Darwin born in 1854. The quilt was probably made for Flora. Abram G. Wileman, a physician and war hero, served in the Civil War and was killed in 1863. Esther studied medicine at Penn Medical University in Philadelphia and received her degree in 1855. She practiced medicine in New Jersey. Esther died in 1873 and is buried in the Drumore Friends Cemetery in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The quilt was donated to the Museum in 1964 by Dr. Lorin E. Kerr, Jr. the great grandson of Esther.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1850-1860
- quilter
- Wileman, Esther Coates
- ID Number
- TE*T13472
- accession number
- 254704
- catalog number
- T13472
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1850 - 1875 Mary Ann Bishop's "Double Nine-patch" Pieced Quilt
- Description
- Mary Ann Bishop of Wilkesville, Vinton County, Ohio, made this quilt in the mid-nineteenth century. She utilized plain-woven roller-printed cotton dress fabrics and woven striped, checked, and plaid cottons. Two of the blocks of the “Double Nine-patch” quilt were enlarged by adding strips of printed cotton along two edges. A combination of diagonal-line and feathered “S” curve patterns were used for the quilting. Two gradually curved S-shaped wooden templates, also donated to the Collection, were used for marking the quilting pattern.
- Mary Ann Gotschall was born July 7, 1819. She married Hiram H. Bishop (1818-1897) on January 31, 1842 in Harrison County, Ohio. He received his medical training at Starling Medical College in Columbus, Ohio, in the late 1840s. Lyne Starling (1784-1848) was the founder of the hospital and medical school, a new concept at that time of providing medical education and patient care in one facility. During the Civil War, from June 1864 to March 1865, Hiram was contracted as an Acting Assistant Surgeon at the Totten General Hospital, Louisville, Kentucky. In March of 1865, when he left, the hospital had over 6,500 patients and fewer than 100 surgeons.
- Mary and Hiram reared four children; John (b. 1843), Naomi (b. 1845), Mary (b. 1848), and Luie (b. 1860). Mary Ann died March 9, 1915, and is buried in the Wilkesville Cemetery. Mary Ann Bishop’s quilt in the “Double Nine-patch” pattern is one of three quilts in the Collection that were donated by her granddaughter, Maude M. Fierce, in 1936 and 1937.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1850-1875
- maker
- Bishop, Mary Ann Gotschall
- ID Number
- TE*T07850
- accession number
- 141189
- catalog number
- T07850
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1850 - 1880 Lucy Meade's "Sunburst" Pieced Quilt
- Description
- The “Sunburst” quilt was brought to Kansas from Ohio in 1904 by Emma Tracy, Lucy Meade’s mother. She had inherited it from her mother, Candus Cone Northway, whose aunt crafted it in the mid-19th century. Lucy Tracy Meade, the donor’s grandmother, exhibited the quilt in Kansas in the 1970s.
- According to Lucy Meade, it was always referred to in the family as the star pattern. Whether it is called a 14-point star, a sunburst, or a sunflower, the quilt makes a bold graphic statement.
- This carefully designed quilt is composed of five different roller-printed cottons, with a white cotton lining and cotton filling. A 23 ¾-inch red circular center is surrounded by 14 yellow triangles and 14 green diamonds. Additional piecing in blue provides contrast to the colorful sunburst. The resulting 57-inch square is framed by a border of 9 ½-inches on three sides and 17-inches on the bottom. The quilting accents the design with concentric circles ¾-inch apart in the center, echo quilting on the diamonds and triangles, clamshell quilting on the wedges between diamonds, and further concentric circles around the sunburst. The border is quilted with a diagonal grid pattern, all done at 7 stitches per inch.
- In an article in the Hays Daily News from 1979 about the “Sunburst” quilt, Lucy Meade says: “It’s been in the family for as long as I can remember. We’re even so worried about it wearing out that we don’t use it anymore, except for display purposes.” Her granddaughter, Janet Meade Komoroske agreed, and felt that the quilt belonged in a museum collection where it can be admired and studied by a wider audience.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1850-1880
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1984.0211.01
- catalog number
- 1984.0211.01
- accession number
- 1984.0211
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1860 - 1864 Martha Loud's Parlor Throw
- Description
- Martha Mehetable Loud pieced the top of this parlor throw in a hexagon or mosaic pattern. Her grandmother, Lucena Beardley Kile, lined and finished it after Martha's death at age fifteen. Black silk hexagons set off rosettes composed of pieced 1¼-inch hexagons of plain, striped, moiré, plaid, printed, ribbed, brocaded, and pattern-woven silks. Three sides are edged with a narrow black ribbon and a pleated 1 inch red-violet wool braid. The lining is constructed of nine pieces of dark green and white striped silk. The parlor throw is not quilted but tied every two inches with pink and dark green silk thread. From the middle of the nineteenth century, patchwork made of silks and velvets, such as this parlor throw, were a popular means to display needlework and artistic skills.
- Martha Mehetable Loud was born January 24, 1849 and lived in Huntsburg, Geauga, Ohio, until her early death in 1864. Her grandmother, Lucena Beardley Kile, was born in Connecticut about 1800 and also lived in Huntsburg, Geauga, Ohio. She died in 1886. The quilt was donated to the Museum in 1969 by Mrs. Charles Bittinger who was the daughter of Martha Loud's sister.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1860-1864
- quilter
- Loud, Martha Mehetable
- Kile, Lucena Beardley
- ID Number
- TE*T15027
- catalog number
- T15027
- accession number
- 285569
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1865 - 1875 Lizzie Lisle's "Fold and Cut" Appliqued Quilt
- Description
- Lizzie Lisle appliquéd this red and white quilt in about 1870, probably in Cadiz, Iowa before her marriage. Sixteen 14¾ -inch blocks are appliquéd with red conventionalized flowers and four spade-shaped leaves. Each flower has cut-outs forming a cross, revealing the white ground beneath. The center is framed by a 2-inch red band. An 11-inch white border is embellished with a traditional appliqué pattern of swags, bows, and tassels.
- This quilt was referred to in a 1949 Woman’s Day magazine as a “Lincoln Drape” quilt. In the period from 1865 to 1875, a popular swag pattern known as “Lincoln Drape” was used to commemorate the death of Abraham Lincoln and can be found on other decorative items such as glassware. The whole piece is quilted 11 to 12 stitches per inch, with diagonal grid and triple diagonal line patterns.
- Elizabeth (Lizzie) Lisle, born in Ohio in 1836, was the daughter of John Lisle (1803-1890s) and Elizabeth Johnston (1811-1889). Members of the extended Lisle family were early settlers in Jefferson and Harrison Counties in Ohio, but many also moved westward and settled in Iowa. It was in Jasper County, Iowa, on February 11, 1886, that Lizzie married Eden Randall. Eden was born in Delaware County, Ohio, about 1840 and served in the Civil War (Co. G, 3rd Iowa Volunteer Infantry).
- Mustered in June 8, 1861, Eden was taken prisoner on April 6, 1862, in Shiloh, Tennessee. In January 1863 he was part of a prisoner exchange and rejoined his company, only to be severely wounded in the face and mouth on June 12, 1863, at Vicksburg, Tennessee. He recovered in a hospital in Keokuk, Iowa. Elizabeth and Eden had no children. Lizzie is buried in Fairview Township, Jasper County, Iowa. Her grandniece generously donated two of Lizzie Lisle's quilts to the Smithsonian in 1949.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1865-1875
- maker
- Lisle, Lizzie
- ID Number
- TE*T10101
- accession number
- 144535
- catalog number
- T10101
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1865 - 1870 Lizzie Lisle's Floral Appliqued Quilt
- Description
- Lizzie Lisle utilized a unique floral design for this quilt. The center panel consists of four 28½-inch square blocks each appliquéd with large red, green and yellow flowers, leaves, and berries. The large red flowers have reverse-appliquéd details made of printed yellow cotton. Many of the leaves have cut-out details revealing the white ground beneath them. Green cotton gathered over a solid foundation and attached to the quilt gives a three-dimensional effect to the berries. The center is framed by a red saw-tooth band. The 12½-inch border is appliquéd on three sides with an undulating leaf-and-floral vine. A second saw-tooth band follows the outer edge of the quilt. Fine quilting, 12 to 13 stitches per inch, in a variety of patterns, covers both the background and the appliquéd motifs.
- Elizabeth (Lizzie) Lisle, born in Ohio in 1836, was the daughter of John Lisle (1803-1890s) and Elizabeth Johnston (1811-1889). Members of the extended Lisle family were early settlers in Jefferson and Harrison Counties in Ohio, but many also moved westward and settled in Iowa. In Jasper County, Iowa, on February 11, 1886, Elizabeth married Eden Randall. Eden was born in Delaware County, Ohio, about 1840 and served in the Civil War (Co. G, 3rd Iowa Volunteer Infantry).
- Mustered in June 8, 1861, Eden was taken prisoner on April 6, 1862, in Shiloh, Tennessee. In January 1863 he was part of a prisoner exchange and rejoined his company, only to be severely wounded in the face and mouth on June 12, 1863, at Vicksburg, Tennessee. He recovered in a hospital in Keokuk, Iowa. Elizabeth and Eden had no children. Elizabeth is buried in Fairview Township, Jasper County, Iowa. Her grandniece generously donated two of her quilts to the Smithsonian in 1949.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1865-1870
- maker
- Lisle, Lizzie
- ID Number
- TE*T10102
- accession number
- 144535
- catalog number
- T10102
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center