This whole-cloth quilt was made from an Indian palampore, about 1780, that according to the donor was given to Thomas Sully (1783-1872) by a woman whose portrait he had painted. An inscription written in ink on the palampore before it was lined and quilted states:
“. . . Thomas Sully This Quilt was purchased 1736 of a Smuggler of East India goods in the Isle of White [sic], England (Belonging to my late friend Mifs Bradford. Elizabeth Smith Charleston.”
While the date in the inscription appears to be 1736, the design of the palampore is more typical of the latter half of the 18th century.
Thomas Sully painted Elizabeth McEuen Smith’s portrait in 1823 (now in the collection of the Honolulu Academy of Arts). He painted another of her sisters, Emily and Mary McEuen (Los Angeles County Museum of Art). Elizabeth was born in 1795 in Philadelphia, Pa. She married Charles Willis Smith in 1817. Elizabeth died in Georgetown, D.C., in 1839.
A small stamp, possibly an agent’s stamp in Tamil appears in the same area as the inscription. The palampore quilt top was both mordant-painted (a chemical process to fix a dye), dyed, and hand-painted, in Madras, India. It was probably quilted and lined in the mid-19th century.
Initials “S.A.Y.” are inked on the corner of this pieced and appliqued quilt. According to family information Sarah Ann Young made this quilt and two others as a teenager, probably with the assistance of her mother, Elizabeth Young. The cotton fabrics used to create the “Rose of Sharon” variation were home dyed. What appears tan now, was once green. The 3-ply cotton applique threads still show as a green color against the tan. It is quilted, 10 stitches per inch, with hearts, vines, and outline and echo quilting on the appliqued motifs and background.
Sarah Ann Young was born in Preble Co., Ohio, July 28, 1849 and died in Greenville, Ohio, April 20, 1936. The quilt descended in her brother, John Franklin Young’s, family.
Martha Jane Taylor employed her needlework skills to create this chevron patterned parlor throw. According to the donors, her granddaughters, she died in 1882 after a long illness; possibly making this throw was a distraction for her as her health declined.
The 4-inch vertical bands made of strips of silk pieced in a chevron pattern are separated by 1 ½-inch silk ribbons. A 4-inch crazy-patched border with some embroidery frames the center. The lining consists of 30 square and rectangular fragments of a purple/black/white plaid silk fabric. The filling is cotton with an inner lining of cotton cloth. It is tied with purple and yellow silk.
Martha Jane Nicar was born in 1827 or 1828 in Lynchburg, Virginia. In 1845 she married Carlo Reed Taylor (1821-1897) in Mishawaka, Indiana. Carlo R. Taylor was born in Lewiston, N.Y., but traveled and worked in many parts of the country. During the Civil War, according to the family, he was employed by the Confederate Army, possibly manufacturing all the printer’s ink for the Confederacy during that time. He was involved in businesses in Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, among other places. They had five children. Martha died in South Bend, Indiana in 1882.
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.
A block-printed bird dominates this appliqued center panel probably used for a quilt top. Four sprays of block-printed roses and leaves appear to have been later replacements, evidenced by needle-hole patterns in all four corners. The motifs were cut out and appliqued on white cotton; an efficient way to utilize expensive printed fabric. A 1/2-inch red border frames the motifs.
The appliqued panel was part of a larger donation of 18th and 19th century textiles that included quilts, coverlets, rugs, printed fabrics, white-on-white embroidered counterpanes, and blankets among other items.
The date “June 3 1836” and initials “W.B.” in the center panel are plainly evident on this quilted and stuffed white counterpane. Unfortunately no further information was given at the time of donation. Does the date signify an engagement or wedding date? Is “W.B.” the maker or a person honored?
The white-work counterpane is an example of stuffed work using a method of spreading apart the threads in the lining and inserting cotton stuffing. In this way the motifs such as the plumes, sunflowers, daisies, and undulating vines are given a dimensionality. Precise quilting, 10 stitches per inch, further enhances the elegance and overall design of this bedcover.
Two printed cotton fabrics, an indigo and white resist and a brown polka-dot on white, were used to make this version of a "Nine-patch" pieced quilt. Eight-inch pieced blocks alternate with 8-inch printed squares. The original 5-inch border was cut down to 2-inches on three sides and rebound. The quilt is a worn, but well-ordered, geometric example of early 19th century quilt-making.
This album quilt has the inscription "Benoni Pearce Pawling 1850" plainly appliquéd across the top. Whether to celebrate an engagement, announce his availability for marriage, or as a token of friendship it is not evident why this quilt so boldly bears the name, Benoni Pearce. It is known that album quilts were quite popular in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1850 family and friends in the Pawling, New York area joined together to create this example well expressed by one of the inscriptions: "This Humble Tribute I Present - My Friendship to Portray." The needlework, artistry and many inscriptions on the Benoni Pearce Album Quilt make it an important part of the collection.
The eighty-one distinctive blocks of the quilt represent a great many of the quilting techniques and patterns popular in the mid-nineteenth century. Fifty-eight blocks are appliquéd, thirteen are pieced, eight are pieced and appliquéd, one is reverse appliquéd and one is quilted and stuffed. It is constructed mainly of roller printed cottons. The motifs of each of the eighty-one quilt blocks differ, from basic pieced star patterns to free form designs such as a girl jumping rope, a deer or trees. Details on many of the blocks are added in ink or embroidery. The quilting patterns also represent a variety of styles with quilted symbols of hearts, flowers, and various geometric shapes found throughout the quilt.
The many contributors to this quilt have appliquéd, inked or embroidered their signatures to individual blocks, often adding dates, place names, relationship to quilt recipient Benoni Pearce, and even poems. One quilt block depicting a barren gnarled tree expresses the following sentiment:
"I am a broken aged tree
That long has stood the wind and rain
But now has come a cruel blast
And my last hold on earth is gone
No leaf of mine shall greet the spring
No Summers sun exalt my bloom
But I must lie before the storm
And others plant them in my room.
Presented by Your Aunt Anna Dodge."
("Lament For James, Earl of Glencairn," Robert Burns)
Other inscriptions express conventional sentiments. It is through the many dated inscriptions that some of the history of Benoni Pearce's Album Quilt has been established.
Benoni Pearce married Emma Stark in 1851, farmed in the Pawling, Dutchess County, New York, area, had two daughters and died in 1871. By 1873 his widow, Emma, had moved to Washington D.C. with their two daughters and was working as a clerk for the U.S. government, one of the early government girls. Emma Stark Pearce continued to live in Washington D.C. and worked in various government offices until her death in 1899 at age seventy. After she died the quilt remained with her daughter, Jessie, who never married. The other daughter, Augusta, apparently died at a young age. Jessie also lived in Washington D.C., kept boarders and was listed in the city directory as a china painter or artist until her own death in 1907. It was in Jessie's handwritten will that mention was made of "my album quilt . . . ." probably the one that was eventually donated to the Museum in 1972 by descendants. According to the donors they felt that the Museum was better able to preserve and care for the quilt and that such a beautiful object, Benoni Pearce's Album Quilt, should be shared and valued.
In 1891 members of the Trinity Lutheran Church in Findlay, Ohio, created the blocks for this parlor throw to raise money for their newly organized church. Each person was to get ten names at ten cents each for the 25 blocks, for a total of $25.00. Rev. H. C. Stuckenberg was the pastor in charge at the time. When he left a few years later in 1893, the blocks were given to him and his wife, Bertha. It was not until after his retirement in 1929, and just before his death in 1933, that he and his wife settled on the arrangement of the blocks. It was then that she put the squares on a black ground and finished the project.
Rev. Harry C. Stuckenberg was born August 29, 1853 and died October 27, 1933.
Aimee Elkington was twelve when she first embroidered a ribbon for this decorative parlor throw in 1877. It was the beginning of the popularity of “crazy quilts,” decorative tops that were pieced of irregularly shaped bits of silk fabrics, elaborately embroidered, and lined with a silk or cotton fabric. While some may have been used as bedcovers, more often they were displayed in the parlor.
Merchants sold packages of fabric samples, instructions for assembling them, and embroidery patterns to add an endless variety of designs and ornamental stitches. Often the throws were individualized by incorporating mementoes such as campaign ribbons, embroidered or printed poems, and significant phrases, dates or initials. Aimee employed many of the popular motifs and techniques on her throw.
The parlor throw is composed of twenty-five crazy-patched and embroidered blocks. In 1946, almost seventy years after she first started, Aimee joined the blocks together. She died shortly after, before she could add a planned border and lining. Among the motifs are fans, cattails, sunflowers, spider webs, and hearts, all frequently found on other parlor throws. Flowers were not only embroidered but also made of puckered and tacked velvet, padded silk pile, or silk floss that was tacked down and sheared. Applique, crazy patchwork, hand-painting, and fancy embroidery stitches were used to create the elaborate top.
The embroidered initials “AE” in the center signify Aimee Elkington. Some of the blocks may have memorialized friends, such as the crane motif, said to be included for a friend named Crane. A poem, “Easter” by William Croswell, printed on one silk patch, may have had special significance for Aimee. The silk, satin, and velvet fabrics are typical of the period, as are the many colors of silk embroidery thread, chenille, and metallic cord used to embellish them. Created over a lifetime, it is in the rendition that Aimee created a unique and very personal object.
Aimee Elkington was born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1865. She married a Mr. Shepherd, and the couple's daughter, Glaydes, was born in Florida about 1890. On the 1900 census, Aimee was widowed, she and young daughter were living with her mother, Elizabeth Elkington Power, and stepfather, Samuel Power, in Eustis, Lake County, Fla. By 1910 Aimee had remarried, to John L. Hodge, and was living in Lucas, Ohio. As a young child in 1868, John had moved from Canada to the United States. Aimee died in 1946. Glaydes, Aimee’s daughter, donated the quilt (parlor throw) in 1970 and was “delighted to have [my mother’s quilt] in an interesting and wonderful place.”
The focal point, an appliqued basket of flowering branches, is surrounded by an undulating flowering vine and a 2 ½-inch band of printed cotton. These are in turn framed by an 8-inch border appliqued with a leafy undulating vine, another 2 ½-inch band of printed cotton, another 13-inch border with appliqued motifs and a final outer band of printed cotton. Quilted, 9-10 stitches per inch, with a variety of leaf motifs and background of diagonal lines and clamshells. This quilt is a fine example of the frame-within-a-frame overall design.
The large central square contains the inscription: “Presented to Mrs. Mary B. Hill as an expression of esteem by the Ladies of Maltaville.” Mary B. Hill was the wife of Reverend William Hill (1814-1851) of the Presbyterian-Congregational Church of Maltaville, New York. She was born November 13, 1816, to Benton (1786-?) and Elizabeth Barnard in Litchfield, Connecticut. She married on July 13, 1836 and they had one son, Roland. Mary died May 5, 1862, in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1847, women in the church made, joined, lined, and quilted sixty blocks, in addition to the dedicatory center block, to create this example of an album quilt.
Album quilt blocks often contain name, date, or place, and sometimes a poem or verse of special meaning. Almira E. Olmstead added this to her block:
The Tulip and the Butterfly
Appear in gayer coats than I
Let me be dressed fine as I will
Flies, worms, and flowers, exceed me still.
The lines are from “Against Pride in Clothes,” published in 1720 by Isaac Watts (1674–1748), a well-known English hymn writer whose verse is often found on quilts of the period.
The appliquéd blocks are embellished with embroidered details in addition to the inked inscriptions. Flowers, leaves, hearts, stars, crescents, double ovals around the signatures, and other motifs are found in the quilting. As a token of appreciation, this quilt displays the fine quilting skills of the “Ladies of Maltaville.”
This counterpane, or whole-cloth quilt is made of lengths and fragments of cotton, block-printed in England with a palm-tree-and-pheasant motif. A design very popular in the early nineteenth century. The printed fabric dates from 1820-1830, although the quilt was made in the mid-19th century. The lining consists of 36 pieces of plain-woven cotton with several different thread counts. A few pieces have rows of needle holes from previous use.
Written in ink on one piece is "E.L. (?) Hale P.” The quilting pattern consists of diagonal lines about 1 inch apart; 5-6 stitches per inch. The binding is a ¾-inch (finished) straight strip of roller-printed brown striped cotton seamed to the front, whipped to the lining. This quilt is an example of recycling fabrics, possibly bed furnishings, in the mid-19th century.
Below the crewel embroidered basket of flowers in the center panel of this quilt is the cross-stitched inscription: “Margret Nowlan 1822.” The quilt was found in a trunk by renters of a house in Maumee, Ohio. It was noted that Margret Nowlan was a housekeeper whom the owner of the house married after his wife died. After he died, she remarried again, but no names were provided. The significance of the 1822 date is unknown.
Five borders frame the central motif. The two plain borders are composed of several pieces of white cotton fabric that had been previously used. Roller-printed cottons were used for the other three borders. Linen thread was used for the zigzag quilting pattern on this example of a framed center quilt.
Twenty-five blocks, each of a different fabric, are pieced in the “Schoolhouse” pattern for this “Friendship” quilt. The names of 25 women are inscribed in ink by the same hand. Research on the names revealed that they all had connections to Addison County, Vermont. The oldest was born in 1808, the youngest in 1866, with most born in the 1830s and 1840s. Some were teachers. Many are buried in Vermont, mainly at East Shoreham Cemetery.
In 1906, as a token of friendship, the quilt was passed along to the donor’s mother by a neighbor in Dubuque, Iowa. The neighbor’s mother was the maker of the quilt.
This “Mosaic” quilt top is made of 1 ½-inch hexagons pieced into flowers. Each is framed by a row of tiny diamonds and triangles. The center of each flower is a printed red morning-glory and the same roller-printed cotton is used for the small diamonds. According to donor information it was made by Mrs. Tarlton, and won a prize at a county fair in Vermont before the Civil War.
Mrs. Tarlton’s daughter, Nellie, married Captain McKeogh of New Orleans during the Civil War. She in turn gave the quilt to Miss Hannah Jane Seymour on the occasion of her marriage to Elliott Graham in 1891, the parents of the donor. Two of the white hexagons are inscribed “Graham” and “Hannah.” Unfortunately little is known of Mrs. Tarlton other than she moved to New Orleans with her daughter, Nellie.
While the precise name of an individual’s quilt pattern was seldom recorded in the nineteenth century, Mary 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, the “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” (also referred to at times as "Star of Bethlehem") pieced pattern in the center of the 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” (unclear) are embroidered in red silk cross-stitch next to one of the corner vases.
Mary Totten, daughter of Gilbert Totten (1740-1819) and Mary Butler (1739-1832), was born in 1781 in Staten Island, New York. Mary 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, Mary’s father, became known as Tottenville. The economy revolved around oyster fishing, shipbuilding and repair, and farming. Mary married late in life, in her forties, first to Rev. Joseph Polhemus (1762-1827), and, after his death, to Matthew Williams (1780-1836). Mary had no children of her own and her “Rising Sun” quilt was willed to her grandniece when she died in 1861.
At the time of donation, 1938, the "Rising Sun" quilt was noted as made by Mary Betsy Totten or in another note Betsy Totten. In subsequent references either Mary Totten, Mary (Betsy) Totten, or Betsy Totten have been ascribed as the maker of the quilt. Mary did have a sister Elizabeth Totten Cole (1772 - 1860).
Mary "Betsy" Totten's “Rising Sun”quilt is an important example of design and workmanship in the Collection. The fabrics chosen to create this quilt were reproduced in the late twentieth century for the inspiration of contemporary quilters. Other Totten family quilts are in the collections of the Staten Island Historical Society, and another in Cooperstown, New York.
“This quilt was made in Nashville Tenn. I began just before the Civil War, the day Tenn. seceded I stitched the U.S. Flag in the center of the quilt, my father being a loyal man he had to leave home or be forced in the Confederate service, I carried the quilt through the rebel lines to the federal to Cincinnati we remained in Cincinnati until the fall of Fort Donelson then we returned home to Nashville. After the battle of Stone River Gen’l Rosecrans suggested I make an autograph quilt of it & at his headquaters [sic] his was the first name placed in the flag and the second was James A. Garfield and most of his Staff Officers names were placed around the flag. Gen’l Winfield Scott in 1863 at West Point wrote his name. I was visiting my Brother who was a Cadet at the Point. `Then Abraham Lincoln 1863 his son Robert Lincoln in 1881. P.H. Sheridan U.S. Grant Brig Gen’l L. Thomas Adjt Gen’l U.S.A. Maj Gen’l George H. Thomas Benj F Butler Chester A. Arthur. S. H. Wilson. Gen H. W. Blair W. T. Sherman J. St. Clair Morton. Jas McLear Horace Maynard. Col Bowman Supt West Point 1863. Jas S Negley. A McDowell McCook J.A. Garfield Chief of Staff. Jas McKibben. Col Arthur Ducat. C. G. Harker. W.WS. Averill Wm McKinley. Nelson N Miles. Leland Stanford. Theodore Roosevelt. Sen Jos R. Hawley. This quilt was saluted by 20000 troops at the funeral of Pres Lincoln. Hung over the East door of the rotunda when Pres Garfield’s body lay in State, has been hung out at different Inaugurations. It has the line of Gen’ls & Lt Gen’ls. It has other names but these are the most prominent. The different ones that have had charge of it when on exhibition have not been very careful with it. I have never thought of disposing of it, but having lost my home through fire, I wish to rebuld [sic] & this is the only way I can see to raise money. Mary A. Lord.”
Mary Hughes Lord’s undated description of her own quilt.
Among the “prominent” signatures on Mary’s quilt is that of James Morton, who gave her the album in which she kept her photograph as well as those of family and friends, and many of Civil War soldiers. James was killed at the battle of Petersburg, Virginia, on June 17, 1864, but Mary saved his letters and official service documents.
Mary Hughes was born in Nashville in 1848. She was seventeen years old in May 1865 when she married Henry Edward Lord, who had served in Tennessee with the Indiana Volunteers (1861-1864). They lived in his home in Brooklyn, New York, and later in the Washington, D.C., area. Mary died in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1926. Her quilt was never sold, but instead passed to her daughter, who brought it to the Museum in 1943.
This quilt top segment is composed of 130 1 ¼-inch squares of printed and plain-woven cottons. This small segment contains a significant sampling of block- androller-printed cottons from the early nineteenth century. Small florals, geometrics, polka-dot, and printed plaids are represented. Block prints have penciled blue. The white dimity squares are in two different weaves. The sewing thread is linen and the pieces connected by overcasting.
Even though this appliquéd quilt has no known maker, nor specific place of origin, it is a fine example of mid-nineteenth-century quilt making. It consists of nine 23-inch blocks, the center and four corner blocks are appliquéd with a large variation of the Rose of Sharon pattern. Four other blocks are quilted and stuffed motifs popular at the time; an eagle with a shield and flags, an eagle with arrows and an olive branch, a grape-vine and a basket of fruit. The 12-inch border of the quilt is appliquéd with swags and roses. Also on the border are thirty-six small quilted and stuffed motifs of birds on branches, flowers, and grapes.The fabrics used are roller printed cottons. The background is closely quilted with diagonal lines, 12 to 13 stitches per inch. Many of the motifs found on this quilt expressed patriotism and often embellished quilts as well as other household items in the nineteenth century.