Composed of eighty-one blocks, this parlor throw is an example of contained crazy-patchwork popular in the late 19th century. Each block has a cross-shape center outfined by black silk piecing. The cross shapes are pieced from an assortment of multicolored silks.
The piecing is secured with a variety of fancy stitches; buttonhole, detached chain, herringbone, feather, straight, and couching. A machine-quilted (commercially available) silk lining, in a scrolling vine pattern, provides weight and depth to the parlor throw. The precisely stitched parlor throw is completed by a 5 ¼-inch green velvet border edged with a heavy green braid.
The quilt was in the Bates family of New Haven, Conn., and was donated by a family member.
Margaret Langford pieced this version of “Star of Bethlehem” also known as “Harvest Sun” or “Prairie Star” in the later part of the 19th century. The nine pieced blocks are set off by 14-inch and 7¼-inch plain white squares to create a dramatic overall design. It is quilted, 10 stitches per inch, with outline and diagonal grid patterns. Three sides have a 2½-inch printed cotton border.
Margaret O’Sullivan was born in 1852, to Jeremiah (1814-1884) and Elizabeth “Betty” Osburn (1824-1876) O’Sullivan in Spencer County, Kentucky. She married Larkin R. Langford on October 8, 1867. They lived in Anderson County, Kentucky. She died on April 13, 1894, in Spencer County, Kentucky. Another of her quilts, in the “Spider’s Web” pattern, is in the collection of the Kentucky Historical Society.
A quilt pieced in a variation of the “Four-patch” pattern, was cut down to make this crib or child size quilt (41 inches x 40 inches). A hand-sewn seam down the center joins the two sections cut from another quilt. Roller printed cottons, the earliest dating to about 1840, along with woven and printed plaids were used for the 7 ½-inch pieced blocks. These were set diagonally, alternating with 7 ½-inch plain blocks. Filling and lining are cotton. It is quilted (8 stitches per inch) with parallel lines 1 inch apart; vertical lines on the pieced blocks, horizontal lines on the plain blocks. No separate binding, the front is turned to the back (¼-inch) and whip stitched. The small quilt is an example of recycling in the mid-nineteenth century.
This quilted counterpane has a cotton top and linen lining. The top is pieced using various sized segments of the same block-printed fabric. The floral fabric is in red, pink, brown, tan, and black with penciled blue and yellow (blue over yellow) for green. The top and lining are stitched with linen thread; cotton thread was used for the Chevron pattern quilting. The fabric is earlier than the quilt and probably was used previously, an example of recycling precious fabrics in the early 19th century.
Members and friends of a Methodist Church, possibly in Elyria or Wooster, Ohio, each contributed twenty-five cents to have a name inscribed on this red and white, fund-raising quilt. It was later presented to the minister, Charles Hendrickson Stocking (1842-1926). Charles Stocking served in the Civil War and was ordained a minister in 1869. For more than 50 years he served at various churches in the Midwest and was recognized as a successful fund raiser, having a talent for easing debts and constructing churches.
Fifty-four wheels-with-spokes or flowers-with-petals were each appliqued on 9 1/4-inch blocks. The names, all inscribed in ink by the same hand, appear on the centers and spokes or petals of the motifs and a few on the sashing between blocks. More than 1000 names appear on the quilt. All of the motifs are outlined in quilting. The blocks are framed by a 4-inch border. A matching pillow with one motif and inscriptions was included in the donation. This quilt is a fitting tribute to a minister who was known for his skills at fund raising.
The floral bouquet focal point of this mid-19th century appliqued quilt was probably from a panel printed especially for use as a cushion cover or quilt center. The circular 24½-inch center is surrounded by appliqued sprays of flowers and framed by three 6” cotton borders; two roller-printed borders and one white. There may have been a fourth quilted border, part of which remains stitched to the present outer printed border, but later it was folded to the back and stitched for a binding.
The donor gave this quilt to the Museum in honor of her aunt who “rescued” the quilt. “I think it would be a shame to have it hidden away from those who appreciate our heritage and admire beautiful needlework. It would no doubt have been destroyed . . . .”
At the turn of the twentieth century, the American textile industry was the most technologically advanced in the world. However, it was still dependent on Europe, especially France, for art and design. World War I cut off communication with the industry in Europe, and American manufacturers were forced to turn to American artists for design. The industry held contests, and sent designers and art students into museums to study paintings and objects for inspiration.
Students at the Chicago School of Art designed these fabrics in 1915. They were produced and sold by Marshall Field & Co. of Chicago and exhibited by the National Museum in 1916. The school (first known as the Chicago School of Applied and Normal Art) was founded by Emma Marion Church in 1908, the same year she published her book, The New Basis of Art Education. Ms. Church was a graduate of Pratt Institute, of Brooklyn, N.Y., and served a term as president of the Western Drawing and Manual Training Association from 1912 to 1913. A member of the Board of Trustees of the Chicago Art Institue, she was the first woman member of the Chicago Chamber of Commerce. She died in Woodstock, Vermont in 1952.
An unknown quilter assembled this quilt using a striking combination of deep blue, red, and various plaids of wool, wool-cotton, and cotton fabrics. Five-and-a-half inch square blocks are pieced in a modified “Nine-patch” design. Each has a red center, blue rectangles, and plaid corner squares. They are set alternately with blue squares. These are framed by plaid triangles along the edges. It is quilted 8 stitches per inch. The binding, a ½ inch straight strip of the same blue fabric as the large squares, completes the quilt.
Thirty-five blocks, 8-inches square, are pieced in the “Lemoyne Star” pattern. They are set diagonally with twenty-four 8-inch squares of the same floral printed cotton. All four sides are finished with large triangles of printed cottons. On one end is an 8½-inch border of the same floral print as the squares. Quilting patterns include outline on the pieced squares; parallel lines and 1½-inch diagonal grid on the un-pieced squares; and, clamshell on the border. It is quilted 8 stitches per inch. The quilt is an interesting combination of mid-19th century roller printed cottons.
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.
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.
This precisely pieced and stuffed-work quilt was crafted by Catherine and Anna Shriver of Funkstown, Maryland, in the mid-19th century. The circular designs, currently referred to as the “Sunburst” or “Mariner’s Compass” pattern, are set off by elaborate stuffed quilting, 9 stitches/inch. The same printed cotton was used for the design and the saw-toothed border that frames the quilt.
Anna, born October 23, 1821, and Catherine, born February 12, 1826, were the daughters of Elizabeth Grosh and Daniel Shriver. Catherine married Frisby Knode in 1845. Ann did not marry. Both died young, Anna on May 24, 1853; Catherine on March 15, 1854. The quilt was inherited by Catherine and Frisby’s son, William Shriver Knode, who passed it on to his daughter, Nina. She in turn requested that upon her death it be given to a museum for safekeeping. When she died, in 1940, her husband, William F. Heft, gave it to the Museum in her name.
Sarah LaTourette (1822-1914) and/or her brother, Henry LaTourette (1832-1892) wove this blue and white, Jacquard, double-cloth coverlet in 1850 in Fountain County, Indiana. Today, the coverlet exists as two separate panels, which is how it would have been woven—as one length. The centerfield pattern features a “Double Rose” carpet medallion motif accented by geometric stars. There are two border designs. The side border depicts birds, likely peacocks, perched in trees, alongside urns and cathedrals. The bottom border features a meandering floral vine. John LaTourette (1793-1849), Sarah and Henry’s father, was also a weaver who came from a long line of Huguenot weavers in New York and New Jersey. John and his wife moved West in 1816, first settling in Germantown, Ohio, where Sarah was born, then later moving to Indiana. John LaTourette’s trademark was the rose seen here. His children continued using his mark after his death in 1846, but they added the word, “year” to the design to differentiate their coverlets from his. Sarah LaTourette wove until her marriage to John Van Sickle in 1870, and Henry LaTourette continued weaving until 1871. Each panel measures 90 inches by 36 inches.
“1876 Emma St. Clair Whitney Centennial” is printed on the center rosette of this silk quilt. Two-inch plain colored silk hexagons are pieced into rosettes, each separated by black hexagons. An 8-inch silk border is quilted, 8 stitches per inch, with a 5-banded cable pattern. The silk lining is hand-quilted in a shell pattern in the center with a 4-banded cable pattern on the border.
Emma St. Clair Nichols was born on September 26, 1840 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. She married William Whitney (1823-1899) on October 2, 1862. He was a lawyer and Civil War veteran. They raised four children. In 1891 Emma published a book, Michael Hillegas and his Descendants, a memoir of her great grandfather. Michael Hillegas (1729-1804) was the First Treasurer of the United States. In the forward she mentioned that, “. . . [it] is hoped that the facts and materials here collected and classified, will be found serviceable to some later writer. . .” Emma died April 4, 1895. Her 1876 Centennial silk quilt is her legacy.
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.
This blue and white, Figured and Fancy, double cloth coverlet features a “Double Rose” and “Double Thistle” carpet medallion centerfield. There are borders along three sides which feature alternating “Double Rose” and “Double Leaf” medallions. “1839/A P” appears in the two lower cornerblocks, quartered and reflected. Being double cloth, this coverlet was woven with two sets of cotton and wool warp and weft. The cotton yarns are all 3-ply, S-twist, Z-spun, and the wool yarns are 2-ply, S-twist, Z-spun. The coverlet is constructed of two panels that were initially woven as one length, cut, and seamed up the center. The coverlet measures 86 inches by 80 inches. According to the donor, this coverlet was woven by hand by his wife’s grandmother near the Syracuse, New York area. The donor’s wife’s father was Charles H. Peck. There are multiple people names Charles Peck from the Onondaga County area in the late 19th century and more research is needed to definitively determine who A.P. might have been. While family legend attests that a grandmother wove the coverlet, it is much more likely that this coverlet was woven by a male professional weaver for an ancestor with the initials A.P. The loom and patterning device used to weave this coverlet would have been cost and space prohibitive for anyone but the professional carpet and coverlet weaver. The design of the coverlet would indicate that the coverlet was woven anytime between the years 1835 and 1845, suggesting that the donor’s wife’s grandmother may have inherited the coverlet from an older ancestor.
In the late 1880s, track for the Cumberland Valley Branch of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad was being laid near the Siler, Kentucky, home of Mary Frances Steele Harris. It was one of many short lines that carried coal down the mountains to connect with the main line. According to family members, Mary Harris sold butter, eggs, and milk to the railway workers, which enabled her to purchase fabrics for making quilts. In this cotton quilt, she combined variations of “Carpenter’s Wheel” and “Crown of Thorns,” pieced patterns with quilted arcs and squares.
The quilt is comprised of twenty 10 ½-inch blocks and saw-toothed connecting arcs. The fabrics Mary used to create her pattern were plain-weave red, white, and green (now tan) cottons. Quilted arcs, parallel lines, and grids, 7 or 8 stitches per inch, completed the quilt.
Mary Francis Steele was born in Siler, Knox County, Kentucky, in 1861. Her father was Harrison Holmes Steele, her mother ( ? Barton) died when Mary was a young child. On November 30th, 1882, Mary married William Harvey Harris at the Harrison Steele home. By 1894 they had three children. Frances B. Steele is noted on the tombstone of her husband as wife of William Harvey Harris (1867-1927), but no dates were given for her. Mary’s “Butter and Eggs” quilt is a reminder of the ingenuity of rural women to use their entrepreneurial skills to obtain the materials to create objects of beauty for their homes.
According to family tradition, Mary Anderson McCormick made a quilt for each of her seven daughters. This all-white exquisite quilt, made for her youngest daughter, Ella, was inspired by floral designs found on embroidered silk shawls from China.
Mary worked her elaborate design in a variety of embroidery stitches. She achieved a three-dimensional effect by using thick cotton thread and working the satin stitches layer upon layer.
Mary Anderson was born in Virginia on September 12, 1793. In 1809 she married John McCormick (1788-1868) of Augusta, Kentucky. John was a tailor and the couple had eight children. Shortly after her marriage Mary suffered a crippling injury to one hand, and the only practical thing Mary could do thereafter was hold a needle. She clearly made triumphant use of her remaining hand in creating this beautiful quilt and others. Mary died in Kentucky in 1864.
Elspeth Duigan crafted this fine example of a white-work quilt in 1849. She divided the center into 8 large and 4 small squares each enclosing stuffed floral motifs. According to family information, she quilted the initials “E.D.” in one of the corner squares and it incorporates the date “1849” with the edge of the square a “1”, the “E” is also an “8,” the “4” is represented by the “D” (the fourth letter of the alphabet), and “9” is the top part of the “D”. The lining is a very thin cotton layer, and the motif stuffing is cotton and cotton cord. All the motifs are outlined in quilting. The background is quilted with parallel diagonal lines 3/16-inch apart, 13-14 stitches per inch.
Elspeth Duigan was born in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1831. She married Mr. Thompson in Jamestown and later they moved to Lexington, Kentucky. During the Civil War they moved further West to Lexington, Missouri. Elspeth died in 1894.