According to family information, this mid-nineteenth-century appliquéd quilt belonged to Hephzibah Jenkins Townsend of Charleston, South Carolina. The central focus, possibily a Hawk Owl perched above a bird’s nest and surrounded by flowers and butterflies, is appliquéd on a 39 x 37-inch panel. A similar bird is on an English block-printed fabric of about 1780. This is framed by a 2-inch roller-printed cotton floral band, a 13-inch white border appliquéd with flowers and birds, and an 11-inch border of roller-printed cotton. The overall diagonal grid quilting pattern is closely worked at 11 stitches per inch. A 4½-inch woven and knotted cotton fringe is along each edge.
Hephzibah (Hepzibah – Hepsaba – Hepsibah) Jenkins was the daughter of Capt. Daniel Jenkins, a Revolutionary War officer, and Hepsibah Frampton. She was born about 1780 in Charleston, South Carolina. Her mother died in childbirth, while her father was imprisoned by the British during the Revolutionary War. Before her death, Hephzibah’s mother seems to have arranged to have two trusted family slaves take Hephzibah to Edisto Island, a difficult journey at that time, to stay with the Townsend family. The little girl grew up at Bleak Hall, the Townsend family home on Edisto Island. Sometime before 1801 she married Daniel Townsend (1759-1842) and they reared a large family on the island. Hepsaba was said to have been beautiful and gifted with a brilliant mind, a strong will, and a sense of justice.
During her stay on Edisto Island, Hephzibah was inspired by the preaching of Richard Furman, an influential Baptist minister who led the church from 1787 to 1825. He was well known for his leadership, promotion of education, and mission work in South Carolina and elsewhere. After becoming a Baptist in 1807, Hephzibah utilized her talents and organizational abilities to found, in 1811, the first mission society in South Carolina, the Wadmalaw and Edisto Female Mite Society. Their fund raising efforts succeeded, and $122.50 was contributed to the missionary fund in 1812, motivating women to organize societies in other Baptist churches. A few years later, about 1815, this society was responsible for building tabby ovens made from a mixture of sand, lime, oyster shells and water. There the women baked bread and pastries which were sold to raise money to support mission work and build a church.
Hephzibah is also credited with founding the Edisto Island Baptist Church, which was constructed in 1818. While Baptists had worshipped on Edisto Island from the late seventeenth century, it was Hephzibah whose efforts built the first Baptist church on the island. She died in 1847 and is buried in the church cemetery.
Initially, the Edisto Island Baptist Church accommodated both the island’s white planters and their enslaved African Americans. During the Civil War the building was occupied by Union troops. After the war, when most of the plantation families left, the church was turned over to the black membership and continues to this day as an African American church. Both the ovens and the church foundation were made of tabby, an early building material consisting of sand, lime, oyster shells, and water. The Hephzibah Jenkins Townsend Tabby Oven Ruins and the Edisto Island Baptist Church are both on the National Register of Historic Places.
Weavers at the Lancaster Carpet, Coverlet, Quilt, and Yarn Manufactory, owned by Philip Schum likely wove this Jacquard, mauve, red, green, and brown, double-cloth coverlet sometime between 1856 and 1880. The centerfield features a large central medallion made up of concentric floral wreaths. Inside these medallions is a large representation of the United States Capitol. The centerfield ground is made up of shaded triangles. Each corner of the centerfield design features a bird surrounded by flowers and above the bird is a boteh, a motif found on Kashmiri shawls and later European copies commonly referred to as Paisley pattern. The four-sided border is composed of meandering floral and foliate designs. There are not traditional cornerblocks on this coverlet, but there are large floral or foliate medallions in each corner that are very similar to those used on signed Philip Schum coverlets. There is fringe along three sides. This coverlet was woven on a broadloom, and possibly a power loom.
Philip Schum (1814-1880) was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Holy Roman Empire. He immigrated to New York, moving to Lancaster County, PA in approximately 1844. He was not trained as a weaver and there is no evidence that he ever was. What we do know is that Philip Schum was a savvy businessman. He worked first as a "Malt Tramper" in New York, a position presumably linked to brewing and malting of grains. After six months, Philip was able to afford to bring his first wife Ana Margartha Bond (1820-1875) to join him in Pennsylvania. Once reunited, Philip worked as a day laborer, shoemaker, and basket-maker. He purchased a small general store in Lancaster City in 1852. By 1856, he has built his business enough to sell at a profit and purchase the Lancaster Carpet, Coverlet, Quilt, and Yarn Manufactory. Philip's first wife, Anna, passed away sometime before 1879, because in this year, Philip married his second wife, Anna Margaret Koch (1834-1880). The two were tragically killed in a train accident in 1880, when a locomotive stuck their horse and buggy. The New Era, a local Lancaster newspaper titled the article about the incident with the headline, "Death's Harvest." Lancaster Carpet, Coverlet, Quilt, and Yarn Manufactory began with just one or two looms and four men. It grew to four looms and eight men quickly. By 1875, the factory had twenty looms and employed forty men. Philip Schum was no weaver. He was an entrepreneur and businessman who invested in the growing market for household textiles. Philip's estate inventory included a carpet shop, weaving shop, dye house, two stores, and a coal yard. At the time of his death were also listed 390 "Half-wool coverlets." These were valued at $920. In 1878, Philip partnered with his son, John E. Schum to form, Philip Schum, Son, and Co. Another Schum coverlet is in the collections of the MFA-Houston. This particular coverlet was purchased by the donor's grandfather in either Cincinnati or Pittsburg while he was serving as a ship's carpenter along the Ohio River trade routes. The family would later settle in Crawford County, Indiana. This fact also shows that Philip Schum's coverlets, quilts, yarn, etc. were not just being made for the local market. Schum was transporting his goods west and presumably in other directions. He was making for an American market.
In 1962 a great-great-granddaughter of one of the makers of this quilt donated it to the Museum with the information that it had been made by women in the Adams family. They were said to have made the quilt while the men were away during the War of 1812. The donor’s great-grandfather was Jackson Adams, her great-great uncle, Joshua Adams, and her grandmother, Jane Adams.
This quilt is made up of 7-inch blocks pieced in the "Pinwheel" pattern, alternating with plain white blocks. Detailed stuffed quilting embellishes the white blocks and border. Ten different quilting patterns are used for the plain blocks, all but one repeated.
The 8-inch white border has a quilted-and-stuffed feathered vine with small quilted-and-stuffed floral motifs. White cotton fabric was used for the lining, cotton fiber for the filling and stuffing. The pieced blocks and border are quilted at 9 stitches per inch. The “Pinwheel” Quilt, with its contrast of elaborate stuffed quilting and simply pieced blocks, is a fine example of early 19th-century quilting making.
Eliza Jane Baile lovingly stitched and inscribed this cotton album quilt top, finishing a few weeks after her marriage to Levi Manahan in 1851. Original patterns of wreaths of strawberries and flowers are framed by a strawberry vine along the quilt border. Three blocks incorporate inked inscriptions within scrolls. On one corner, one may read “E J Baile. Commenced June 1850” and on the opposite corner, “Finished October 30 185l.” A third scroll has the following sentiment carefully penned:
“Sweett flowers bright as Indian Sky
Yet mild as Beauty’s soft blue eye;
Thy charms tho’ unassuming shed /
A modest splendoure o’er the mead.”
Great attention was given to the completion of this quilt. The sawteeth of the border are individually appliquéd and the strawberries stuffed. All of the motifs have outline quilting, with closely quilted background lines, 10 stitches to the inch. The overall design is further enhanced with embroidery and small details drawn in ink or watercolor.
Eliza Jane Baile, the daughter of Abner Baile (1807-1894) and Frances Pole Baile (1813-1893) was born February 13, 1832, in Maryland. According to Eliza’s obituary, her mother was a descendent of Edward III, King of England. At age nineteen, Eliza married Levi Manahan ((1824-1893) on October 11, 1851. They reared eight children on a farm near Westminster, Carroll County, Maryland.
Eliza was not only an accomplished quilter, she was also known as a folk artist. One of her oil paintings, Stone Chapel of the Methodist Church is at the Historical Society of Carroll County. Other paintings are owned and treasured by her descendents. An active member of the Stone Chapel United Methodist Church, Eliza also founded a Ladies Mite Society and served as president for 50 years. Mite Societies were voluntary organizations that were established in the nineteenth century to raise monies for mission work.
Eliza died June 25, 1923, age 91, at her home in Westminster and is buried at the Stone Chapel Cemetery. As her obituary in the Daily News, Frederick, Maryland, notes, “Her Christian character endeared her to many friends. She was well known as an artist.” In 1954, Eliza’s youngest daughter, Addie, donated her mother’s quilt to the Smithsonian. Eliza's artistic abilities are well represented in the “Bride’s Quilt” she designed and made for her marriage.
In the mid-nineteenth century, Mary Carpenter Pickering made this appliquéd quilt while living in St. Clairsville, Ohio. According to family information, she began work on the quilt when a friend, John Bruce Bell, left St. Clairsville to accompany a wagon train to the Oregon Territory. He returned eight years later, and they were married. Her grandson, Robert S. Bell, wrote that Mary made the quilt “to make the time go more quickly” while John Bell was away in the Oregon Territory. The quilt is said to have won a blue ribbon at the Ohio State Fair in the early 1850s.
Baskets of flowers are appliquéd on nine blocks. These motifs are raw-edged, held down by close buttonhole stitching. The blocks alternate with all-white blocks that feature stuffed motifs of fruit and flower baskets, grapes and leaves, sprays of leaves and flowers, and a wreath. An appliquéd flowering-vine border completes the overall design of the quilt.
The background quilting patterns are parallel horizontal and diagonal lines about ¼-inch apart, 13 stitches to the inch. Roller-printed cottons are used for appliquéd motifs; the lining is plain white cotton. “Mary C. Pickering. St. Clairsville Ohio” is prominently back-stitched in black silk on one of the white blocks.
Mary Carpenter Pickering was born in Belmont County, Ohio, in 1831. She married John Bruce Bell on September 3, 1861, at New Athens, Ohio. Shortly after their marriage, John Bell joined the Union Army in 1862 for service in the Civil War. He was honorably discharged from the army in 1863 with disabilities that lasted for the rest of his life. They moved to Keokuk County, Iowa, in 1864 and raised nine children, three still living in the 1890s. Mary died in 1900. Her prize-winning appliquéd quilt was handed down in her family for three generations before being donated to the Smithsonian in 1981.
An elaborate eagle and an American flag block adorn this patriotic example of a mid-19th-century album quilt. Baskets of fruit and flowers, wreaths, and cornucopias, all typical motifs of the period, complete the quilt. Some of the most extravagantly decorated blocks appear on a distinctive group of presentation quilts that were made in or near Baltimore, Maryland, and are now popularly known as Baltimore album quilts.
The quilt contains both hand and machine quilting. A two-thread chain-stitch machine was used to outline some of the appliquéd motifs and anchor the bias binding on the edges. The background was hand-quilted with feather plumes, clamshells, and diagonal grid patterns, 8-9 stitches per inch.
Kaziah North Bathurst made this cotton quilt as a gift to her stepson, Samuel Harvey Bathurst. The carefully pieced baskets with their appliquéd handles contain scraps from the dresses of Samuel’s mother, Emily Susan Bathurst (1833-1869). Samuel was born in Washington County, Iowa, in 1853. He farmed and was a lifelong resident of Adair County, Iowa, until his death in 1937.
Thirty pieced and appliquéd 7 ½-inch blocks in the “Basket” pattern alternate with plain white blocks. These are framed by a 5 ½-inch white border. The quilting patterns include feathered circles and undulating ivy vines, with pairs of birds between the baskets in the outer row. Each bird is in profile with its head turned to the back, revealing an eye embroidered in black cotton thread.
Born in Pennsylvania in 1841, Kaziah (Keziah) North was living in Iowa with her family by 1860. At age 30, Kaziah married Roland Curtin Bathurst, a widower with eight children of which Samuel was the eldest. Kaziah and Roland had three more children. According to family history, Kaziah made a quilt for each of her eight stepchildren using fabrics from their mother’s dresses. She also made quilts for the three youngest children, Roland, Pearl, and Iva Gay, with fabrics from her own dresses. Kaziah’s husband, Roland, died in 1900, and she died in 1922. Both are buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Atchison County, Kansas.
Samuel’s daughter, Effie, donated his quilt to the Museum in memory of her father, and as a tribute to Kaziah who used her quilting expertise to keep memories alive for both her children and stepchildren.
Lura B. Thomas made this quilt for her 10-year-old granddaughter, Lura Woodside, in 1898. It was part of the contents, donated in 1953, of Lura Woodside’s late 19th-century child’s bedroom in Malden, Mass. Furnishings, children’s clothing and playthings were among the items donated. Like the quilt, most of the clothes and doll dresses were also made by Lura Thomas, who had been a professional dressmaker.
Lura Thomas pieced this quilt of triangles utilizing many different roller-printed and woven checked, plaid, and striped cotton fabrics. Two 2 1/2-inch triangles are joined into a square, and the squares are joined so that the triangles of the same print form a diagonal row. In the center of the quilt “Lura 98” is embroidered in yellow. The quilt has a cotton lining and filling. It is quilted in a chevron pattern at 7 stitches per inch.
The donor, Lura Woodside, was born in East Boston in 1887, and grew up in Malden, Mass. She married Charles Watkins in 1910. An antiques collector and authority on New England ceramics and glass, she published several books and scholarly articles. She was a founder of the Middleton (Massachusetts) Historical Society, and the Lura Woodside Watkins Historical Museum was named in her honor. She died in 1982. Her quilt, made by her grandmother, represents her lifelong interest in history and the sharing of that interest through her many museum donations.
Seven large squares and six large triangular sections, set diagonally, create the focus for this mosaic counterpane from the early 19th century. The segments are both pieced and appliqued with a multitude of block-, plate-, and roller-printed cottons as well as a few Indian painted cottons. It is finished by a narrow border attached with piping along each side, creating a frame for the center. The lining is a roller-printed, floral motif cotton; small pieces of the same fabric were also used for the geometric top. The many fabrics used to create the complex design make it an interesting example in the Collection.
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.
Purchased at a church bazaar in Fort Smith, Arkansas, this Bible-inspired rendition in fabric of the Garden of Eden is a testimony to the ingenuity and creativity of quilt makers in the second half of the nineteenth century. The donor's grandmother, Laura Doty Diffey, acquired the quilt in 1900. It is possibly the work of Sylvia S. Queen of Olathe, Kansas, as a quilt with similar vignettes, attributed to her, is in the Johnson County Museum in Shawnee, Kansas.
The center medallion of this quilt represents the firmament, with the sun, stars, and four phases of the moon. Artfully arranged around the center are scenes from the Old Testament: Adam and Eve, Eve tempted by the serpent, Eve giving Adam the apple, and, finally, Adam and Eve running out of the Garden of Eden. Appliquéd motifs of birds, butterflies, flowers, and fruit trees are interspersed. A flowering vine that grows from a double trunk at the bottom of the quilt frames the vignettes, leaving a space at the top. The scalloped edge echoes the curving vine. Plain and roller-printed cottons, and plain and checked silks are used for the appliquéd motifs, some of which are stuffed. Outline-quilting is used for the sun, moon, stars and larger flowers. The background is quilted in parallel diagonal lines, 3/8-inch apart, 8 stitches per inch.
Sylvia S. Queen was born in 1804 in Connecticut and lived for several years in Kankakee Township, LaPorte County, Indiana, where she is listed on the 1870 and 1880 censuses. From 1881 on, she lived in Olathe, Kansas. Sylvia made a will in 1891 while she was living with a granddaughter, Susan M. Sanford. The will mentioned a son, Faber M. Walker of Benton Harbor, Michigan. Born about 1829, he served in the Civil War for a short time. He was to receive “. . . the sum of one dollar . . . having received before this all I intended to give [him] . . .” Sylvia’s will states that most of her belongings were to go to her granddaughter “. . . if she lives with and takes care of me, as she has done ever since she came to live with me in the month of April 1891, as long as I live.” According to Sylvia’s obituary in the Olathe Mirror May 14, 1896, she had “been an invalid for a number of years . . . She was possessed of some ability as a poet and many of her friends have her writings as mementos . . . . She was an ardent Christian and gave liberally to the church.” Sylvia died May 9, 1896, at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Sanford, and is buried in the Olathe Cemetery in Kansas.
This counterpane, with a version of the “Tree of Life” motif, portrays a vignette of family life in the mid-nineteenth century. It was said to have been made for the Hasbrouck family by an Englishwoman. In the 1870 and 1880 censuses, Mary Ward, who was born in Ireland, lived with them and worked as a domestic servant. Perhaps the counterpane was made by her or Elisabeth Tompson, who is listed as part of the Hasbrouck household on the 1860 census. In 1975, the Smithsonian acquired the counterpane from Josiah and Ellen Hasbrouck’s grand-daughter, Margaret Blauvelt Hasbrouck Elliot.
Block- and roller-printed dress and furnishing cottons from 1800 to 1845 are used for the design. The ground is white cotton stamped or printed “Fine Sheeting” with the number “31” in a wreath of leaves, and a vase of flowers on a platform. Embroidered details on the counterpane are worked in both silk and cotton. The border is appliquéd with a flowering vine, and the counterpane is edged with appliquéd scallops.
Josiah Hasbrouck was born in 1830. He married Ellen Jane Blauvelt in 1856, and had five sons, the first of whom died in infancy. They lived in Esopus, Port Ewen, Ulster County, New York, where Josiah Hasbrouck was a physician. The idyllic scene may have represented Josiah and Ellen Hasbrouck and their four sons Walter, John, Gilbert, and Josiah enjoying the banks of the nearby Hudson River.
Collection consists of 18 appliqued quilt blocks. Many of which have inscriptions. The blocks are 9 1/2 -10" square. Each block is individually described below:
A - Friendship Block. Fleur de Lis pattern with central open space. Edges are turned under by whipstitching, 14 stitches per inch. Stitched to block is inked paper inscribed: "Hannah Hall".
B - Friendship Block. Stylized bows with a small, sawtooth-edged central open space. Background cotton is glazed. Raw edges are secured with buttonhose stitch, 30 per inch. Stitched ot block is paper inscribed in ink, "Miss Mary Warthman".
C - Friendship Block. FLeur de Lis pattern with central open space. Edges aare turned under and whistitched, 14 per inch. Center open space is stamped with floral garland surrounding the name, "Emmaline Evans".
D - Friendship Block. Fleur de Lis pattern with central open space. Edges are turned under and whipstitched, 12 per inch. Stitched to block is inked paper inscribed "Jane Hall, Philadelphia".
E - Friendship Block. Fleur de Lis pattern with central open space. Edges are turned under and whipstitched, 12 per inch. Stitched to block is inked paper inscribed "Mary Ann Dickinson, Du cannon, Pa."
F - Friendship Block. Fleur de Lis pattern with central open space. Edges are turned under and whiipstitched, 12 per inch.
G - Friendship Block. Fleur de Lis pattern with step outlined, on center square inscribed with the inked name, "Lydia Ann Warner" edges are turned under and whipstitched, 13 per inch.
H - Friendship BLock. Fleur de Lis pattern with central open space. Raw edges are secured with button hole stitch, 18 per inch. Stitched to block is inked paper inscribed: "May sorrow never on thee come/Mall thy joys increse/Unnumbered pleasures round thee bloom/And everlasting peace. Copied for Sarah H. Dickinson April 22nd 1849".
I - Friendship Block Fleur de Lis Pattern with central opeen space. Raw edges are secured with button stitch, 24 per inch. Stitched to block is inked paper inscribed, "Hannah H. Dickinson, Philadelphia".
J - Friendship Block. Fleur de Lis Pattern with central open space. Edges are turned under and whipstitched, 14 per inch. Signed in ink on back, "Louise A. (? indecipherable)"/
K - Friendship Block. Unfinished. Leaf pattern with central open space.
L - Honey Bee Block. Central solid square with 3 petal shapes on each corner. Ground fabric of glazed cotton is pieced. Edges of applique are turned under and whipstitched, 12 per inch.
M - Star & Leaf Block. Eight pointed central star with square open space in center surrounded by single and multiple leaf forms. Edges are turned under and finely whipstitched, 18 per inch.
N - Heart Block. Center heart with open space in center, four outward pointing heart shapes at each corner. edges are turned under and finely whipstitched, 20 per inch. Stitched to block is inked paper inscribed, "Lydia P. Wood, Mount Holly".
O - Clematis Block. Central four petaled form with four single petal shapes in each corner. Raw edges secured with button hole stitch, 30 per inch. Stitched to block is inked paper inscribed, "Sarah Hampton".
P - Star Block. Large single five-pointed center star with four smaller stars, one in each corner. Raw edges secured with button hole stitch, 32 per inch. Stitched to block is inked paper inscribed, "Mary Hampton".
Q - Garland of leaves and berries. Stitched to block are two pieces of inked paper inscribed, "John Hampton" and "John A. Hampton".
R - Chintz Applique Block. Motif of flower, buds, leaves and stem cut out of a printed cotton and appliqued to white cotton, with edges turned under using fine whipsti
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.
This Point de Paris bobbin lace mat border was made by lace makers in Turnhout, Belgium between 1914 and 1919 for sale by the Commission for Relief in Belgium. The flowers and swans are symbols of the annunciation. The blue print B44/99 among the War Laces in the Hoover Library shows the same lace. It is made of cotton and is of good quality.
Crazy-patch Parlor/slumber throw. Forty-two 11-inch square blocks pieced in the crazy-patch pattern. Each block has an embroidered name. Several surnames repeat. Two central blocks embroidered “NELLIE BOWMAN TEACHER” and “HARRISON CENTER SCHOOL 1918”. The school is located in Elkhart Co., Indiana. Lined with a floral cotton. The quilt is tied, 9 - 11 ties per block.
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.
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.
This Italian needlepoint lace, made in linen of Reticella and Punto in Aria, is in the style of the 16th century to the beginning of the 17th century. It shows a variety of archaic figures – lion, deer and man – and includes three-dimensional raised embellishments.
This is a very good quality flounce of Point de France [d’Argentan] needlepoint lace. It probably dates originally from the late 17th century, but was pieced and mended in the 19th century when some cordonnet was added. There is a great deal of raised work, with picots both on the edging and the interior raised work. The entire piece is 134 inches long and 13.5 inches wide and worked in fine linen thread.