Popular Entertainment

This Museum's popular entertainment collections hold some of the Smithsonian's most beloved artifacts. The ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz reside here, along with the Muppet character Kermit the Frog, and props from popular television series such as M*A*S*H and All in the Family. But as in many of the Museum's collections, the best-known objects are a small part of the story.

The collection also encompasses many other artifacts of 19th- and 20th-century commercial theater, film, radio, and TV—some 50,000 sound recordings dating back to 1903; posters, publicity stills, and programs from films and performances; puppets; numerous items from World's Fairs from 1851 to 1992; and audiovisual materials on Groucho Marx, to name only a few.

Hulda Larson and her daughter Ellen made this quilt to commemorate the 1901 Pan-American Exposition held in Buffalo, N. Y. Souvenir stamped muslin squares were sold at the Exposition and later in stores to be embroidered and assembled for a quilt.
Description
Hulda Larson and her daughter Ellen made this quilt to commemorate the 1901 Pan-American Exposition held in Buffalo, N. Y. Souvenir stamped muslin squares were sold at the Exposition and later in stores to be embroidered and assembled for a quilt. Referred to as “penny squares” because they were often sold in packets of 50 for 50 cents, they became popular reminders of events and sights at the Exposition. Dated “May 1, 1905” this quilt incorporates many of those souvenir blocks.
Fifty-six 7 ½-inch white blocks were outline-embroidered in red, many depicting buildings of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. Hulda and Ellen used over 30 of these motifs for their quilt. A block labeled, “Wm McKinley Our Martyred President,” was added to the original design after his assassination at the Exposition on September 6, 1901.
The blocks also included embroidered portraits of Mrs. McKinley, , President Theodore Roosevelt, his daughter, Alice, and Mrs. Roosevelt, Edith Caro, who married the widowed president in 1886.
In the center is the official logo of the Exposition. Blocks with an American eagle, flag, and shield add a patriotic element. Two blocks with buffalo motifs, “Put Me Off at Buffalo” and “I Am A,” and other animal and floral motif blocks were used to complete the quilt. When the fair ended its buildings were demolished, except for the New York State building that later became the Buffalo and Erie Canal Historical Society.
Using a grid system of the numbers 1 to 7 across the top and A thru G along the left side the following blocks were connected to the Pan-American Exposition. The inscriptions on each block are embroidered in red.
A2 – “Indian Congress and Village”; A5 – “Stadium”; A6 – “Ohio Building”
B1 – “Trained Wild Animals”; B2 – “Ethnology Building”; B6 – “Service Building”; B7 – “Infant Incubator”
C1 – “Fair Japan”; C3 – “Johnstown Flood”; C5 – “Darkness & Dawn - Fall of Babylon”; C7 – “Government Building”
D1 – “Agriculture Building”; D2 – “Mrs. McKinley”; D3 – “President Roosevelt”; D4 (seal) “Pan-American Exposition. 1901. Buffalo. N.Y. U.S.A.” D5 – “Mrs. Roosevelt”; D6 – “Wm. McKinley-Our Martyred President” D7 – “Alaskan Building”
E2 – “Electric Tower”; E3 – “New England Building”; E5 – “Old Plantation”; E6 – “Temple of Music Where President McKinley was shot”; E7 – “Cleopatra's Temple”
F1 – “Horticulture Building”; F2 – “Aerio Cycle”; F3 – “Machinery and Transportation Building”; F4 – “Panopticon”; F5 - “Phillipine Village”; F6 – “Triumphal Bridge”; F7 – “Beautiful Orient”
G2 – “Louisiana Purchase Building”; G3 – “House Upside Down”; G4 – “Hawaiian Village & Kileaua Volcano”; G5 – “A Trip to the Moon”; G6 – “Wisconsin Building”; G7 – “Darkest Africa”
This machine-quilted example of redwork has a 3-inch white ruffle, edged with red embroidery. It has a white cotton lining and cotton filling. The blocks are machine-joined, and the lining is machine-stitched. Stem and feather stitches were used for the embroidery.
Hulda Fredricka ParsDotter was born April 21, 1858, in Vimmerby, Sweden, and married Anders James Larson on June 23, 1877. In 1882 they came to Jamestown, N. Y. Their daughter Ellen Sophia Cecilia was born in Vimmerby, Sweden, on August 11, 1879. Other daughters born in the United States were Dora (about 1889), Della (about 1891) and Arlene (about 1896). Ellen married C. Emil Swanson in 1903 in Jamestown. Ellen died on January 1, 1925. Hulda died October 4, 1949, at the age of 91. Daughter Dora married Arthur Anderson and their daughter, Alberta,married Russell Weise. It was their daughter, Judith Anderson Weise, who donated her great-grandmother and great-aunt’s Pan-American Exposition Commemorative quilt to the Museum in 1985.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1905
maker
Larson, Hulda Fredricka
Larson, Ellen Sophia Cecilia
ID Number
1986.0032.01
catalog number
1986.0032.01
accession number
1986.0032
Virginia Ivey designed this white-work quilt to capture the excitement and lively interest of a county fairground in the mid-nineteenth century. The center circle, 40 inches in diameter, is edged by a board fence complete with gate.
Description
Virginia Ivey designed this white-work quilt to capture the excitement and lively interest of a county fairground in the mid-nineteenth century. The center circle, 40 inches in diameter, is edged by a board fence complete with gate. Inside the fence is the quilted inscription: "1856 A REPRESENTATION OF THE FAIR GROUND NEAR RUSSELLVILLE KENTUCKY." The central judges' pavilion with the judges, encircled by horses and riders, fair buildings and workers, animals of all sorts, and of course the fairgoers themselves, all in a state of arrested motion, contribute to the unique design.
Virginia Ivey's needlework and artistic skills resulted in a quilt that depicts the smallest details of fence rail, walking stick and saddle, or men shaking hands in greeting. The surface outline was quilted using two layers of fine white cotton with a thin cotton fiber filling, stitched through all three layers. The sculpted effect of the design was achieved with stuffed and corded quilting techniques and grounded with stippling, 12 stitches to the inch. The quilt is finished with a 4½-inch woven and knotted cotton fringe. Her needlework is often described as using needle and thread much like another artist might use pen or brush.
Virginia Mason Ivey was born on October 26, 1828 in Tennessee. She was the daughter of Mourning Mason and Capt. David Ivey, a farmer and soldier in the War of 1812. According to family information her father named her after his native state. When Virginia was a young child the family moved to Keysburg, a small town in Logan County, Kentucky. Aunt Jennie, as she was known to the family, according to her niece Ida B. Lewis, "never had any lessons in art-just-her own talent and creative instinct. She loved beauty in many forms and had a most attractive personality and was quite a pretty woman." Virginia Ivey never married and when she died she left this quilt to her niece, Lillian Virginia Lewis.
"I have a quilt which I value most highly. It was made by my aunt, Virginia M. Ivey. I cannot care for it much longer and I should like very much to know that it will have excellent care and that it will give pleasure to many people who will appreciate its remarkable workmanship and its great beauty". So wrote Lillian V. Lewis about the quilt she donated to the Museum in 1949. Now over 150 years old, this elaborate example of white-work quilting, "A REPRESENTATION OF THE FAIR GROUND NEAR RUSSELLVILLE KENTUCKY 1856," has been exhibited at fairs and museums and has won many prizes.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1856-1857
quilter
Ivey, Virginia Mason
ID Number
TE.T10269
catalog number
T10269
accession number
183387
The popularity of the 1937 Walt Disney movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, based on a German fairy tale, inspired this quilt pattern. The movie has been re-released many times.
Description
The popularity of the 1937 Walt Disney movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, based on a German fairy tale, inspired this quilt pattern. The movie has been re-released many times. In 1972 Lehman Brothers published a pattern, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves,” that is very similar to this quilt. It was advertised as “a perfect quilt for your favorite child. White bearded dwarves [sic] dressed in bright suits, and colorful trees and flowers surround Snow White and the cottage.”
From the early 20th century, kit quilts have been available in the market to save time and/or provide the quilter with assistance in design or color choices. This quilt was made from a kit as evidenced by stamped lines that are still visible along some edges.
The quilt is appliquéd with motifs that include a stylized cottage, trees, and dwarfs, and, of course, Snow White. All of the dwarfs have coral-colored caps and boots, blue tights, yellow shirts, green vests, and white beards. Details are embroidered with satin, outline, daisy, and French knot stitches. The figures are outlined in quilting stitches, 4 stitches per inch. The 7 ½-inch border is quilted with flowers and diagonal lines. The “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” pattern, based on a well-known children’s story and animated movie, made a special quilt to brighten a child’s room.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1975-1995
ID Number
1996.0013.01
accession number
1996.0013
catalog number
1996.0013.01

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