On This Day in History Quilt for April 30.

On this day in 1789 Martha Dandridge Custis Washington became the first First Lady of the United States (although this term would not be used for another seventy years). A quilt attributed to Washington is in the Smithsonian Museum collection.

This wholecloth quilt in the DAR Museum collection was made around 1800 by an unknown quiltmaker. The plate-printed fabric used in the quilt was also used by Martha Washington in an unfinished bedcover in the collection of The Mount Vernon Ladies’s Association of the Union (see a photo and read more about this quilt on Barbara Brackman’s “Quilt 1812 War and Piecing” blog.

View this quilt on The Quilt Index to read more about it’s history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Washington

Posted by Amy E. Milne
Executive Director, Quilt Alliance
amy.milne@quiltalliance.org