This quilt top has a binding, but no filling or lining. Perhaps it was meant to be lined and quilted; instead the edges were bound, making it a light-weight bedcover. Pieced and appliquéd techniques provide the frame for a central panel that resembles a small sampler.
Delicate silk embroidery depicts a leafy harp surrounded by hearts, trees topped with red crested birds, potted plants, and the inscription, “Elenor Dolen Roxbury.” Most likely it refers to Roxbury, Massachusetts. The quilt top was donated by a collector of early American domestic furnishings.
Under the center basket of this embroidered counterpane is the inscription “Bethiah D. Green” and on the basket at the top is “Begun October 2, 1796.” The date “1798” appears several times in the border. In addition to the many birds and floral motifs, other designs include the head of George Washington; his riderless horse; a milestone inscribed “12 miles to Boston;” and a pig. According to family tradition, this quilt was inspired by an event that Bethiah witnessed in 1789 when George Washington, passing through Weston, Massachusetts, was nearly thrown from his horse when a pig ran across the road.
This quilt is one of three late-eighteenth-and-early-nineteenth-century quilts that were donated in the 1890s by John Brenton Copp of Stonington, Connecticut. All are a part of an extensive gift of household textiles, costume items, furniture, and other objects that belonged to his family from 1750 to 1850. The Copp Collection continues to provide insights into New England family life of that period.
The pieced blocks on this quilt, a variation of the “Nine-patch” pattern, are each made of one of nine different block-printed cottons. These are symmetrically arranged according to the particular print, and alternate with plain white blocks. The quilting pattern consists of parallel diagonal lines on the pieced blocks contrasting with 1½-inch shells on the white blocks, all quilted at 7 stitches per inch.
An analysis of the household textile collection donated by John Brenton Copp can be found in the Copp Family Textiles by Grace Rogers Cooper (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1971). In the book the author summarizes the family background. “The first Copp to reach America was William, a 26-year-old London shoemaker who in 1635 set out for the Massachusetts Colony on the good ship Blessing. He landed east of Boston and became the first owner of Copp’s Hill in north Boston . . . . William’s son Jonathan established the Connecticut branch of the family around Stonington later in the seventeenth century. Many of his male descendents gained comfortable prosperity as merchants and businessmen, while their wives and daughters led full lives as mothers of the large families in which education and refinement were encouraged . . . . The long succession of Jonathans, Samuels, Catherines, Esters, Marys, and Sarahs makes it rather difficult to set in order the generations and their contributions to the collection.” The exact maker of this “Nine-patch” quilt is unidentified, but it was probably made by one or more members of the Copp household.
This pieced-work example is one of three late-eighteenth-and-early nineteenth-century quilts that were donated in the 1890s by John Brenton Copp of Stonington, Connecticut. All are a part of an extensive gift of household textiles, costume items, furniture and other objects that belonged to his family from 1750 to 1850. The Copp Collection continues to provide insights into New England family life of that period.
The arrangement of the pattern of this quilt is one found frequently in eighteenth-century and early-nineteenth-century quilts, a succession of borders framing a center panel of pieced work. A view of the pieced center of this quilt seen from the right side, suggests the shape of a tree, and the printed fabrics repeat in mirror fashion in each row about ninety percent of the time. Perhaps the center was erroneously placed in this direction, or it was meant to be viewed from the bedside. The lining is pieced of much-mended linen and cotton fabrics that originally were probably sheets. On one piece, the initials “HV” are cross-stitched in tan silk thread. It is quilted in an overall herringbone pattern, 5 or 6 stitches per inch.
The clothing and furnishing fabrics used in the quilt top span a period of about forty years. This, and the fact that the Copp family was in the dry goods business, may explain why the quilt includes more than one hundred and fifty different printed, woven-patterned, and plain fabrics of cotton, linen and silk. Although the array of fabrics is extravagant, economy is evident in the use of even the smallest scraps. Many blocks in the quilt pattern are composed of several smaller, irregularly shaped pieces. Two dresses, in the Copp Collection, one from about 1800 and the other from about 1815, are made of fabrics that appear in the quilt.
An analysis of the household textile collection donated by John Brenton Copp can be found in the Copp Family Textiles by Grace Rogers Cooper (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1971). In the book the author summarizes the family background. “The first Copp to reach America was William, a 26-year-old London shoemaker who in 1635 set out for the Massachusetts Colony on the good ship Blessing. He landed east of Boston and became the first owner of Copp’s Hill in north Boston . . . . William’s son Jonathan established the Connecticut branch of the family around Stonington later in the seventeenth century. Many of his male descendents gained comfortable prosperity as merchants and businessmen, while their wives and daughters led full lives as mothers of the large families in which education and refinement were encouraged . . . . The long succession of Jonathans, Samuels, Catherines, Esters, Marys, and Sarahs makes it rather difficult to set in order the generations and their contributions to the collection.” The exact maker of this quilt is unidentified, but it was probably made by one or more members of the Copp household.
An intriguing note came with this framed medallion quilt when it was donated: “The Quaker Quilt. Phil. ca 1840 made for wedding of bride of early Philadelphia Quaker Abolitionist of pieces from the gowns of her trousseau.” Unfortunately there is no indication of the quilt maker or ownership.
The focus of the 41-inch central square, “Star of Bethlehem,” is set off by a 5-inch octagonal border. Additional pieced and plain borders frame this variation of a medallion-style quilt. The beige, tan, brown, rust, and light grey silks and satins utilized for the pattern would be typical of the Quaker esthetic and period. The quilt is lined with roller printed cottons and filled with wool. It is quilted with a variety of geometric patterns (grid, diagonal, chevron, and parallel lines), feathered and flowering vines in the borders, and a spray of flowers in the corner squares. This quilt is a precisely designed example of Quaker quilts in the mid-19th century.
This small mat or table cover is made with sixteen 6-inch LeMoyne Star blocks pieced entirely of printed cottons. A 5 ¼-inch printed cotton border frames the pieced stars. There is no filling. It is lined with printed cotton and bound with ¾-inch straight strip of the same printed fabric used for the border, whipped to both front and lining. This pieced square utilizes the popular star motif and quilting to provide a decorative item for the mid-nineteenth century home.
This comfort, with a very thick cotton filling, was relined and retied after 1850. The many printed fabrics that were used for the pieced-worked top make it significant.
In particular, vignette segments from a roller-printed fabric, "Shakspere's Seven Ages," were used for several of the blocks. The scenes were rendered in red on plain-weave ivory cotton fabric. This was an 1830-1840 adaptation of an earlier, popular 1805 plate print by John Slack, which, in turn had been copied from a series of engravings published in 1801. Several of the vignettes are printed with titles such as “Dotage,” “The Justise,” or “The School Boy,” and of course on a banner, “Shakspere’s Seven Ages.”
This neatly made example of a “Hawaiian Flag” quilt was presented to Rosina Kalanikauwekiulani Ayers on the occasion of her marriage to Dr. Robert Henry Dinegar in 1898. “Hawaiian Flag” quilts generally are not used, but rather are valued as a treasured heirloom and displayed as such or given to esteemed friends or family on significant occasions.
Although the Hawaiian flag first appeared in the early part of the nineteenth century, only later did the flag motif become characteristic of a distinct type of Hawaiian quilt. The design became popular after 1893 when the American settlers replaced the monarchy and Queen Lili‘uokalani abdicated the throne. Quilters incorporated the Hawaiian flag and coat-of-arms motifs on their quilts to honor their heritage and show loyalty to the Hawaiian nation and monarchy.
The four pieced Hawaiian flags on this quilt are arranged around appliquéd and embroidered details from the royal crown and coat-of-arms, including the two guardians of King Kamehameha I (1756-1819), the first king of Hawaii. “HAWAII PONOI / UA MAU KE EA O KA‘AINA IKA PONO” (THE LIFE OF THE LAND IS PERPETUATED BY RIGHTEOUSNESS) is appliquéd in the center. It is a motto that appears on the state seal and is attributed to King Kamehameha III (1813-1854). Quilting, typical of Hawaiian Flag quilts, consists of chevrons, diagonal lines, and grid on the flag sections, with echo quilting in the center.
Rosina Georgetta Kalanikauwekiulani Ayers (family name Manaku) was born January 12, 1877, in Lahaina, Maui. She was a descendent of King Kamehameha I, who established the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1810. In 1898, Rosina married Robert Henry Dinegar (1870-1930) and they had two children. Robert Dinegar received his medical degree from New York University Medical College in 1892 and a few years later moved to the Hawaiian Islands as a government and plantation physician. Among other accomplishments, he is credited with reducing the death rate at plantations from a hundred a year to ten. In 1909 he moved his family to Albany, New York, where he continued to practice medicine. Robert died, age 59, in 1939 and Rosina died in May 1966. Her daughter, Adelaide McDonough, graciously donated her mother’s Hawaiian coat-of-arms quilt in 1978. Her note with the donation stated that her mother “. . . was always proud of her lineage & I know would be happy that these artifacts [her quilt] are in the Smithsonian Institution.”
Four Hawaiian flags arranged around details from the royal crown and coat of arms, including the two guardians of King Kamehameha I. An appliqued inscription: "HAWAII PONOI / UA MAU KEEA OKA AINA IKA PONO" (THE LIFE OF THE LAND IS PERPETUATED BY RIGHTEOUSNESS) White cotton lining, machine-stitched (as is front). Wool filling. Sewing and quilting threads are 3x2-ply S-twist white cotton. Applique thread is 3-ply S-twist blue cotton; embroidery thread is 3-ply S-twist blue and yellow cotton and a small amount of black silk .Quilting pattern: in the center section, echo quilting, the rows 1" apart. White stripes are quilted in chevrons, blue stripes in diagonal lines, red stripes in a diagonal grid, all 1" apart. 8 stitches/inch. Bound with 5/8" (finished) straight strip of red cotton folded over edge, machine-stitched to lining with white cotton thread, whipped to front with red cotton thread.
The center of this counterpane is composed of alternating wide and narrow block printed stripes, block-printed in pale dull yellow and brownish-gray with dark brown outlines. The wide border is block-printed in the same colors. Most of the blocks used in the border are the same as used to print the border of 1995.0008.01 which was later used as one side of a late 18th -early 19th century reversible quilt. Top and bottom edges are selvedges; side edges are turned to back and whipped.
The counterpane and quilt with similar block prints were found in New York tate. An analysis of the placement of the printed patterns on the fabric, and in the sequences of the printing and assembling, indicate the possibility of a local artisan printing variations to order.
“Shoo-fly” blocks, composed of roller-printed floral and geometric patterned cottons, provide the design for this quilt. The same large floral print cotton was used for both the bands separating the blocks and the ruffled flounce on three sides. The lining is pieced with three lengths of roller-printed cotton in a bold design, depicting a running mare and foal that appear to be in a field or partial wreath of flowers. The quilting is a diagonal grid pattern, 6 stitches per inch. The quilt was donated by a collector of early American domestic furnishings.
A delightful pattern of squirrels and birds on sinuous branches is block-printed in the central area of the counterpane that is one side of this reversible quilt. The squirrel-and-bird motif is framed by a 10 1/2-inch border, also block-printed in tan, brown and orange, of swags of fruit and tassels. Inscribed in ink in a corner: “$71.15” ? (line drawn under) and “$4.50”. Might this have been the charge to block-print?
The reverse side is pieced, composed of alternating vertical strips of floral block-printed and roller-printed fabrics. The quilt is filled with cotton and quilted in a chevron pattern, 6 stitches per inch.
The quilt and counterpane (1995.0008.02) with similar block prints were found in New York State. An analysis of the placement of the printed patterns on the fabric, and in the sequences of the printing and assembling, indicate the possibility of a local artisan printing variations to order.
This intriguing quilt, “Solar System,” was made by Ellen Harding Baker (1847-1886), an intellectually ambitious Iowa wife and mother. It came to the National Museum of American History in 1983, a gift from her granddaughters.
The maker, Sarah Ellen Harding, was born in Ohio or Indiana, in 1847, and married Marion Baker of Cedar County, Iowa, on October 10, 1867. In the 1870s they moved to Johnson County, where Marion had a general merchandise business in Lone Tree. Ellen had seven children before she died of tuberculosis on March 30, 1886.
The wool top of this applique quilt is embellished with wool-fabric applique, wool braid, and wool and silk embroidery. The lining is a red cotton-and-wool fabric and the filling is of cotton fiber. The design of this striking and unusual quilt resembles illustrations in astronomy books of the period. Included in the design is the appliqued inscription, “Solar System,” and the embroidered inscription, “E.H. Baker.” Mrs. Baker probably began this project in 1876, as per the “A.D.1876” in the lower right corner.
The “Solar System” quilt was probably completed in 1883 when an Iowa newspaper reported that “Mrs. M. Baker, of Lone Tree, has just finished a silk quilt which she has been seven years in making.” The article went on to say that the quilt “has the solar system worked in completely and accurately. The lady went to Chicago to view the comet and sun spots through the telescope that she might be very accurate. Then she devised a lecture in astronomy from it.” This information was picked up the by the New York Times (September 22, 1883).
The large object in the center of the quilt is clearly the Sun, and the fixed Stars are at the outer edges. Around the Sun are the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Moon, and Mars. Not shown are the two moons of Mars that were first seen, at the U.S. Naval Observatory in 1877. The four curious clumps beyond Mars represent the asteroids. The first asteroid (Ceres) had been found in 1801, and with the proliferation of ever more powerful telescopes, ever more objects came into view. Then there is Jupiter with its four moons first seen by Galileo, and Saturn with its rings. The six moons orbiting Uranus are somewhat confusing, as astronomers did not agree on the actual number. Neptune has the one moon discovered by an English astronomer in 1846, shortly after the planet itself was seen.
The large item in the upper left of the quilt is surely the naked-eye comet that blazed into view in the spring of 1874, and that was named for Jerome Eugene Coggia, an astronomer at the Observatory in Marseilles. Americans too took note. Indeed, an amateur astronomer in Chicago put a powerful telescope on the balcony of the Interstate Industrial Exposition Building (1872-1892), a large glass structure recently erected along the shore of Lake Michigan, and offered to show Coggia’s Comet to citizens of and visitors to the Windy City.
The New York Times described Mrs. Baker’s intention to use her quilt for pedagogical purposes as “somewhat comical”---but it was clearly behind the times. Most Americans knew that women were teaching astronomy and other sciences in grammar schools, high schools and colleges, in communities across the country. Mrs. Baker, for her part, may have been inspired by the fact that the famed Maria Mitchell, professor at Vassar College, had brought four students and piles of apparatus, to Burlington, Iowa, to observe a solar eclipse in August 1869.
Harriet Powers, an African American farm woman of Clarke County, Georgia, made this quilt in about 1886. She exhibited it at the Athens Cotton Fair of 1886 where it captured the imagination of Jennie Smith, a young internationally-trained local artist. Of her discovery, Jennie later wrote: "I have spent my whole life in the South, and am perfectly familiar with thirty patterns of quilts, but I had never seen an original design, and never a living creature portrayed in patchwork, until the year 1886, when there was held in Athens, Georgia, a 'Cotton-Fair,' which was on a much larger scale than an ordinary county fair, as there was a 'Wild West' show, and Cotton Weddings; and a circus, all at the same time. There was a large accumulation farm products--the largest potatoes, tallest cotton stalk, biggest water-melon! Best display of pickles and preserves made by exhibitor! Best display of seeds &c and all the attractions usual to such occasions, and in one corner there hung a quilt-which 'captured my eye' and after much difficulty I found the owner, a negro woman, who lives in the country on a little farm whereon she and husband make a respectable living . . . . The scenes on the quilt were biblical and I was fascinated. I offered to buy it, but it was not for sale at any price."
Four years later, Mrs. Powers, at the urging of her husband because of hard times, offered to sell the quilt, but Miss Smith's "financial affairs were at a low ebb and I could not purchase." Later Jennie sent word that she would buy the quilt if Harriet still wanted to dispose of it. Harriet "arrived one afternoon in front of my door in an ox-cart with the precious burden in her lap encased in a clean flour sack, which was still further enveloped in a crocus sack. She offered it for ten dollars--but--I only had five to give." Harriet went out to consult her husband and reported that he said she had better take the five dollars.
Mrs. Powers regretfully turned over her precious creation, but only after explaining each of the eleven panels of the design, which Jennie Smith recorded. Briefly, the subjects are Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, a continuance of Paradise with Eve and a son, Satan amidst the seven stars, Cain killing his brother Abel, Cain goes into the land of Nod to get a wife, Jacob's dream, the baptism of Christ, the crucifixion, Judas Iscariot and the thirty pieces of silver, the Last Supper, and the Holy Family.
In her narrative about the quilt, artist Jennie revealed why she was so taken with it: "Her style is bold and rather on the impressionists order while there is a naievete of expression that is delicious." In recent times, historians have compared Harriet's work to textiles of Dahomey, West Africa.
The Bible quilt is both hand- and machine-stitched. There is outline quilting around the motifs and random intersecting straight lines in open spaces. A one-inch border of straight-grain printed cotton is folded over the edges and machine-stitched through all layers.
Harriet Powers was born a slave near Athens, Georgia, on October 29, 1837. At a young age, she married Armstead Powers and they had at least nine children. Some time after the Civil War, they became landowners. Eventually, circumstances forced them to sell off part of the land but not their home. The date of Harriet's death, Jan. 1, 1910, was recently discovered on her gravestone in Athen's Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery.
An appliquéd eagle motif is the central focus of this patriotic quilt of the early 19th century. The eagle has arrows in one talon, an olive branch in the other, symbolizing both desire for peace and readiness for war. It is a version of a symbol adopted by a resolution of the U.S. Congress in 1782 for the official seal.
Surrounding the 30 x 29-inch center are alternating blocks of pieced eight-pointed stars and plain white blocks. It is quilted at 8 stitches per inch. The “American Eagle” quilt was in the Dove-Cator families of Baltimore and Harford Counties, Md.
The crafting of this quilt was made possible by William Grover’s 1851 invention of the double-thread chain stitch. He and William Baker were issued U.S. Patent No. 7,931 for a machine that used this stitch. The Grover and Baker Sewing Machine Co. of Boston, Mass., began manufacturing the machines in 1851, and by 1856 were producing for the home market. “Quilting on a Grover & Baker’s sewing machine, is no trouble at all, and the rapidity with which it is accomplished, enables us to apply it to many things which would cost too much time and labor for hand sewing.” ( The Ladies’ Hand Book of Fancy Ornamental Work Florence Hartley, Philadelphia, 1859.)
The most elaborate quilting of the 19th century was done by hand. It is unusual that the unknown maker of this quilt used a machine to stitch the design of each square through two layers of cotton fabric. The design areas were then stuffed with cotton fibers. The squares were sewn together by hand to make the quilt top, and an overall lining was added. The three layers were quilted by hand along each side of the seams where the squares of the quilt top were joined.
By 1870, the Grover and Baker double-thread, chain-stitch was being replaced by a lockstitch. The lockstitch machines used one-third the amount of thread and made less bulky seams. The lockstitch remains the standard stitch of home sewing machines to this day.
The motifs on this all-white quilt top are similar to those found on many of the colorful appliqué quilts of the mid-19th century. Although more complex than most of the work for which the new machines were used, the quilt’s design and the use of the Grover and Baker stitch suggest that this is an early example of machine quilting.
After its adoption in 1782, the Great Seal of the United States became a popular design motif. An adaptation of the eagle design centers the top of this hand-woven cotton quilt that was block-printed in the early 19th century for a Mrs. Farris of Kentucky. Mrs. Farris’s daughter, Elizabeth C. Nunn, lined and interlined the top with cotton and stitched the layers together in a diamond quilting pattern.
Blocks for printing such bedcovers were of crudely carved wood, with individual motifs that could be arranged in a variety of designs. The color on this example, probably originally printed with Prussian blue, has faded from washings.
Elizabeth C. born in 1783 in Virginia, married William Nunn (1783-1822) in March 1805. Elizabeth died in Kentucky in 1871.
Quilted counterpane entirely block-printed in blue: An eagle with the work "Liberty" over its head, in an oval edged with scallops. Surrounding this is a larger ring of scallops, flowers, buds with leaves, and flying birds, all enclosed in a 1-7/8" printed border. Beyond this frame are pots of fruit and flowers, and a 4-1/2" geometric border. White cotton lining. Very thin cotton filling. Sewing thread is 2-ply S-twist linen; quilting thread is 2-ply S-twist cotton. Quilting pattern: 1" diagonal grid, 6 stitches/inch. Appears to have been marked and quilted from the back. No separate binding: front and lining turned in and whipped.
When this quilt was donated in 1917 it was accompanied by a note: “Quilt pieced by Louise Ward 1854 and quilted by Louise Harrison 1858.” Little further information was given, but they may have been relatives of the donor who was from Iowa.
Red, green, and orange cottons were effectively used to make this mid-19th century quilt. The appliquéd “Love Apple” pattern is framed by a 7-inch border appliquéd with toothed swags and tassels. Outline quilting was used for the flowers, accented by concentric arcs and diagonal lines on the background and quilted at 9 stitches per inch. It is bound with a straight strip of cotton.
The Report on the Progress and Condition of the United States National Museum for the Year Ending June 30, 1917 recorded the quilt as a gift from Dr. Carrie Harrison. “Illustrating household industry in the textile arts . . . a cotton appliqué quilt, pieced and quilted by a relative before 1859 . . . . At different times, she also donated several other items of interest to the textile collection.
Dr. Carrie Harrison, a native of Iowa, was the first curator at the National Herbarium. In that role she traveled internationally in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. According to A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada 1914-1915 “[Carrie] At 16 taught a country school; at 17-18 managed a farm; later became interested in botany and with a book, dog and horse as companions made several prize collections of Iowa plants. At the time of the Boxer uprising in China [she] was the means of getting a cablegram through to the American Legation in Peking, which probably saved all the foreign embassies in China. This was called by Andrew D. White the finest piece of diplomacy in 1900.”
A woman of many accomplishments, she was known as a suffragette and botanist who coined the 4-H motto “To Make the Best Better.” The “Love Apple” Quilt is an apt donation by a botanist to enrich a textile collection.
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.
A quilted and stuffed block on this mid-nineteenth-century quilt bears the inscription “JANE BARR JULY 1849.” Although a gift to the Smithsonian from her niece, Nancy Angelina Ross of Mars, Pennsylvania, in 1954, little more is known about Jane or the significance of the date.
The quilt is composed of 12-inch blocks appliquéd with crossed flowers. Red-, green- and yellow-ground roller-printed fabrics were used for the design. The pattern has characteristics of both “Meadow Daisy” and “Mexican Rose” motifs. Intervening white blocks are elaborately quilted in different geometric and floral motifs, 9 stitches per inch. A flowering vine delineates the border of this beautifully crafted quilt from Pennsylvania.
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.