Quilted in Topeka, Indiana, in the first half of the twentieth century, this is an example of the pattern referred to as “Path through the Woods.” Made of cottons, mainly solid colored tan and red, the blocks are framed by a 2¼-inch red inner border and a 6½-inch tan outer border. The quilt has a blue binding. It is both hand- and machine-pieced; the blocks are joined with machine stitching. An 8-pointed star is quilted in the center of each block. This is an instance of Amish quilting done outside of traditional Pennsylvania areas.
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.”
Wilhelmina Dollinger Endlich, crafted this quilt for her daughter, Evelyn, when Evelyn was about ten years old. Wilhelmina appliqued and embroidered the eight hoop-skirted, sunbonnet-wearing and parasol-carrying figures. Different print and color-schemes were used for each figure. Variations of this design were popular throughout the 20th century. The blocks are separated by 2 1/4-inch sashing. The quilt was sent out to be quilted.
Wilhelmina Dollinger was born in Philadelphia in 1904 and married in 1922. She became a registered nurse after she married, graduating in 1928 from the Roxborough Memorial Hospital. During World War II she worked for the signal corps as a nurse with a later career was as an industrial nurse. She died March 12, 1964.
Quilted in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania in the early twentieth century, this is an example of the “Garden of Eden” or “Economy Block” quilt pattern. A center of twenty pieced and plain 20-inch square blocks is framed by a “Chain Square” and two plain borders. Plain-colored cotton and wool fabrics and black quilting thread contribute to its quiet elegance.
Eliza Rosecrans Hussey personalized her pieced wool-and silk-star quilt with symbols of the Masonic Society. The embroidered motifs are interspersed between twenty-five blocks pieced in a variation of the “Feathered Star” pattern. Another silk quilt in the Collection was also made by Eliza, and was embroidered with symbols and inscriptions of the Odd Fellows. Edward Simmons Hussey, her husband, was an active member of both the Masons and the Odd Fellows.
Eliza, born October 14, 1816, in Pennsylvania, went with her family to Indiana as a young child. She married September 17, 1835. Edward Simmons Hussey in Carlisle, Indiana. They lived in various Indiana towns while Edward worked as a merchant, hotel manager, book keeper, and express agent.
By 1860 they had settled in Brazil, Indiana, where Eliza worked as a milliner. There they raised their family of ten children. Eliza, after some years as an invalid, died March 23,1880. Her carefully designed and crafted quilts are a reminder of the importance of benevolent societies such as the Masons and the Odd Fellows in the developing towns and cities in the Midwest in the first half of the nineteenth century.
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”
E2 – “Electric Tower”; E3 – “New England Building”; E5 – “Old Plantation”; E6 – “Temple of Music Where President McKinley was shot”; E7 – “Cleopatra's Temple”
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.
The “Double Wedding Ring” pattern became popular in the late 1920s. This example was made for the donor by the wife of a rural storekeeper near Raleigh, North Carolina. She used pieces cut from yard goods sold in the store, fabrics typical of the 1930s.
This quilt, composed of 5 ¾” squares of printed cotton set diagonally with 2 ¾” sashing and border, contains interesting cotton fabrics from the early 19th century. The green motif repeated on a dark ground appears to have been mordant-printed from a small wooden stamp, possibly of Indian origin, and dyed. The sashing is cut from yardage of copper-block-printed floral stripes, probably English. The lining is a block-printed resist-dyed fabric. The various fabric printing techniques and the woven effect of the sashing contribute to the appeal of this quilt.
Stenciled in the center of the lining of this quilt is “S. T. Holbert” which stands for Susan Theresa Holbert. Her older sister, Emily, made another quilt in the Smithsonian’s collection, the “Vanity of Vanities” quilt.” Might Emily have made this quilt for her younger sister as well? Or were they both accomplished quilt makers?
The center of the quilt is a sunburst or star 26½ inches in diameter, pieced of triangles and diamonds. Sixteen appliquéd feathered plumes emerge from the outer edge of the sunburst. Between the plumes are sixteen small 4-inch pieced sunbursts. A 3/8-inch band of red cotton print separates the field from the border. Along the inner edge of this band are birds with flowers and buds, and in each of the four inner corners is a pieced and appliquéd “Carolina Lily” block. The 7½-inch border contains an appliquéd undulating oak leaf vine.
The fabrics used are roller- and discharge-printed cottons. The quilt has a filling of cotton with a white cotton lining. All the pieced and appliquéd motifs have double-outline quilting and the open spaces are filled with motifs of flowers, running vines, leaves, sprigs, fleur-de-lis, botehs, and hearts; each quilted 8 stitches to the inch. This quilt’s dramatic design incorporates a popular mid-19th century motif: plumes or the “Princess Feather” pattern, in the then-fashionable red and green color combination.
Susan Theresa Holbert was born in Chester, Orange County, New York, on February 24, 1834. She was the daughter of James Holbert, a farmer, and Susan Drake Holbert. They had another daughter, Teresa, who died in 1816 at the age of three and Susan was probably named after her. Susan married William Alfred Lawrence in 1861, and they had a son, Theodore (1862-1947). Susan died in 1871. This quilt was donated to the Smithsonian by Mr. and Mrs. John Beard Ecker. Mrs Theodora Ecker is Susan’s granddaughter. At the same time another quilt from the same family, Emily Holbert’s “Vanity of Vanities” quilt, was also donated to the Smithsonian.
Over 5,000 hexagonally shaped patches of plain and printed cottons were used to create the quilt. It is outline-quilted at 10 stitches per inch. It was quilted on a frame made by Emma’s grandfather in 1833. The frame was used in the family until it was donated with the quilt in 1988.
Emma Mundorff’s grandfather, Philip Snyder, was born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1801. He and his wife, Maria, immigrated to the U.S. in 1832 and settled near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Granddaughter Emma Culp was born in 1869. Her family farm, “Culp’s Hill,” is part of Gettysburg Battlefield history. She married Jacob Mundorff (1863-1915) in 1886.
Emma made quilts for herself, her four children, and eight grandchildren. Her masterpiece, “Flower Garden,” was made in 1949 when she was 80 years old.
The oval medallion that graces the center of this whole-cloth whitework quilt contains the embroidered initials “J W” and the date “1810.” A stuffed-work wreath of flowers encircles the medallion. This is in turn framed by borders of stuffed-work foliage and double cross-hatched quilting. This early example of white work was kept in the family until its donation to the National Museum of American History in 2000. The identity of the maker or “J W” is not known.
A variety of fabrics from the mid-19th century were used for the 6 ½-inch pieced blocks in the “Double Cross” or “Mosaic” pattern. The blocks are set diagonally in strips with white triangles. The bedcover (no filling, no quilting) consists of these strips, joined to create a "Rail Fence" of “Zig-Zag” effect. Fabrics consist of roller-printed florals and geometrics; woven stripes, checks, plaids; and two glazed furnishing fabrics. The lining consists of three lengths of floral motif roller-printed plain-woven cotton. Most piecing on the front is done in an overcast stitch. Later fabrics (c. 1860) are pieced with a running stitch. The two layers of the bedcover are bound on the edges with a 5/8-inch (finished) straight strip of roller-printed floral cotton (one of the fabrics used for the lining), seamed to the front, whipped to the lining. The many examples of fabric design and an eye-catching arrangement of the blocks create interest on this mid-century bedcover.
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.
Twenty-four roller-printed cottons were used to construct this example of an “Irish Chain” pattern. The plain white and pieced blocks are framed by a roller-printed glazed floral chintz. The pieced blocks are quilted with diagonal lines, the white blocks with clamshells, and the border with chevrons.
According to family information, Margaret Willis crafted the “Irish Chain” quilt near Leonardtown, Maryland. Margaret Lowry was born in Virginia in 1794. She married John S. Willis (1790-1878). Margaret died in 1844 and is buried in Mercer County, Missouri.
Mrs. Gilbert (Susannah G.) Pullen and her Sunday school class made this pieced quilt in Augusta, Maine in 1863. She followed the guidelines set by the U.S. Sanitary Commission for bedding to be used in the Civil War. The fourteen young ladies in the Sunday school class contributed over 150 inscriptions that were penned on the quilt's fifteen separate star-patterned blocks. They chose Bible passages, stories to uplift and guide, and riddles to which the answer was only to be found in the Bible. They also provided numerous inscriptions on practical health advice, patriotic messages, and light-hearted riddles. Even personal messages such as: "If you are good looking send me your photograph. Direct to the name in the large square. E.G.D." appeared on the quilt. It was hoped that the quilt would not only provide a diversion for the wounded soldiers during their long days recovering in hospital but also "alleviate or prevent disease and lead to happiness and Heaven." The numerous inscriptions on this quilt provide an insight into the feelings and concerns of the period and perhaps all war eras.
Susannah Pullen expressed hope for correspondence when she penned these words on the quilt: "We have many dear friends connected with the army & any proper letters from any persons embraced in the defense of our country, received by any whose names are on this quilt shall have a reply. Tell us if nothing more its destination. We meet with many others to sew for you every Wednesday and your letters would prompt us to more exertions for our patriots." Two letters remain with the quilt and attest to its use at the Carver and Armory Square Hospitals in Washington D.C. A letter from Sergt. Nelson S. Fales of Nov. 22, 1863 eloquently expresses his gratitude: "Dear Madam I have had the pleasure of seeing the beautiful 'Quilt' sent by you to cheer and comfort the Maine Soldiers. I have read the mottoes, sentiments, etc., inscribed thereon with much pleasure and profit."
On the back of the quilt Susannah Pullen penned these words: “The commencement of this war took place Apr. 12th 1861. The first gun was fired from Fort Sumter. God speed the time when we can tell when, and where, the last gun was fired; & ‘we shall learn war no more.’ If this quilt survives the war we would like to have it returned to Mrs. Gilbert Pullen, Augusta, Me . . . This quilt completed Sept. 1st 1863.” It did survive use during the Civil War, and it was returned to Mrs. Pullen as she requested.
Susannah G. Corey was born in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1816. She married Gilbert Pullen (1810-1890) April 26, 1840. Gilbert was listed as a marble cutter on the 1850 census. They lived in Augusta, Maine with their two daughters, Susan E. and Charlotte. Susannah and Gilbert were members of the First Baptist Church. Susannah died November 26, 1871, and is buried in the Forest Grove Cemetery in Augusta, Maine.
Susannah Pullen's Civil War Quilt was exhibited at a library in Augusta, Maine, for many years. Over time the inscriptions faded, but fortunately a transcription of them was made in the early-twentieth century. In 1936 Susannah’s granddaughter, Gertrude B. Davis, donated the quilt in her mother’s name, Charlotte Pullen Scruton. It is a reminder of the efforts of the many women who used their needlework and organizational skills to provide comfort for the armies of both the North and South.
Named the “The Pocahontas Quilt” by the family of the maker, Pocahontas Virginia Gay, it is a wool counterpane that displays both her design and needlework skills. The thirty-six 11-inch blocks are appliquéd with motifs cut mainly from wool fabrics. These are further embellished with embroidery, silk fabrics, ribbon, and details in pencil or ink.
Pocahontas based her motifs on popular illustrations of sentimental vignettes and Southern heroes, as well as the Victor dog trademark adopted in 1901 by the Victor Talking Machine Company. Proud to be a seventh-generation descendant of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, she included a likeness of the Indian princess as she appears in a 17th-century engraving frequently reproduced in genealogies.
Pocahontas Gay, or “Aunt Poca” as she was known to family, was born in Virginia on September 5, 1831. She was the daughter of Neil Buchanan Gay and his wife Martha Talley. She never married and remained connected to the family home, Mill Farm in Fluvanna County, Va. She died on October 14,1922.
Fannie Gatewood Grimes pieced nine 21-inch examples of the “Harvest Sun” pattern (also known as “Prairie Star” or “Star of Bethlehem”) to fashion this wool quilt in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. In 1988 it was donated to the Smithsonian by her granddaughter, Mary Harding Renshaw.
The “Harvest Sun” blocks were pieced with wool fabrics and set with a 6-inch dark green wool sashing. Contributing to the overall design, the 3½-inch borders are made with the same red wool that was used as a background for the pieced blocks. The lining is black twill-woven cotton. The quilting patterns consist of outline and diagonal grid, quilted 7 stitches per inch.
Frances (Fannie) Price Gatewood was the daughter of Fielding Gatewood (1787-1833?) and Nancy Williams Gatewood (b. 1791). She was born March 22, 1822 in Logan County, Kentucky, one of four children. Fannie married James T. Grimes (about 1814–1869) on December 19, 1840. They lived in Logan County where James was a sheriff and a farmer. Of their eight children, two died in childhood. Family information described James as a tall, red-headed Irishman with a temper, and Fannie as liking nothing more than smoking a pipe filled with cherry leaves. On the 1880 census, Fannie is head-of-household, keeping house in Keysburg, Logan County, for her son and daughter, their spouses, a granddaughter and her mother, Nancy, age 89. Her son is listed as a leaf tobacco dealer and her son-in-law as a distiller. Fannie died on December 11, 1914, at age 92, and is buried in the Grimes Cemetery in Logan County.
In 1993, Fannie’s “Harvest Sun” wool quilt was reproduced under license to Cabin Creek, a West Virginian quilting cooperative and sold through the Land’s End Catalog. This was in response to an outcry by American quilters who were concerned about the sale of Chinese reproductions of American quilts from the Smithsonian Collection. The reproduction “Harvest Sun” quilt was made by American hand quilters with cotton fabrics that were purchased from American mills.
Plain squares (5 ¾ inches) of a tiny floral, brown-on-white, roller-printed cotton are set off by blocks pieced in a “Nine-patch” variation. The pieced blocks contain a variety of mid-nineteenth century geometric and floral prints. The quilt is lined with a white cotton (now brown) and filled with cotton. It is quilted, 5 – 6 stitches per inch. The quilt has cut-out corners. The quilt with its variety of prints is an example of mid-nineteenth century quilting.
This quilt, pieced in a modified Nine-patch pattern, displays a multitude of fabric examples mainly from the 1820s and 1830s. Thirty roller-printed cottons, 5 block-printed cottons, and 16 woven fabrics (stripes, checks, and plaids) were used to make the 6-inch square pieced blocks that alternate with 6-inch squares of printed cottons. The quilt is lined and bound with a plain-weave white cotton fabric. It is quilted, 8 stitches per inch. The variety of fabrics that were used makes this quilt an especially interesting example of early 19th-century textile design and printing.
The design of this pieced quilt, rendered in five roller-printed cottons, resembles both the “Delectable Mountains” and “Twelve Crowns” patterns. Pattern block names vary by era and region. Variations on traditional or classical block patterns are always evolving with new names and the maker may have had another name for the pattern. It is quilted 5 stitches per inch, with a pattern of various size wheels (15-inch, 13-inch and 6-inch) and parallel diagonal lines.
Marked in ink on the lining is “E.K. Sweetland. No.14.” At the time of the 1973 donation by a descendent, a note attached to the quilt noted: “142 years old. Made by Electa Kingsbury Sweetland, Great grandmother of F.P. Loomis.” The Loomis, Kingsbury and Sweetland families were early settlers of Coventry, Connecticut.
Electa Kingsbury was born June 9, 1791 in Coventry. She married Levi Sweetland (1789-1851 or 1854) on March 8, 1810. They had five children and the quilt was possibly made for her daughter, Mary Ann, who was born in 1811 and married George Nelson Loomis (1811-1874). Electa died December 6, 1848 and is buried in the Center Cemetery in Coventry, Connnecticut.