On This Day in History Quilt for April 24.
On this day in 1800 the Library of Congress was established using $5,000 appropriated by President John Adams to purchase “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress.” Today, the collection, housed in three enormous buildings in Washington, contains more than 17 million books, as well as millions of maps, manuscripts, photographs, films, audio and video recordings, prints, and drawings. The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, created by Congress in 1976, is the national center for folklife documentation and research.
This Pine Tree quilt made by Carrie Severt in 1978 was contributed to the Quilt Index by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress as part of the Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project. This ethnographic field project was conducted by the American Folklife Center in cooperation with the National Park Service and includes 229 photographs and 181 recorded interviews with six quiltmakers in Appalachian North Carolina and Virginia.
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://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/library-of-congress-established
Posted by Amy E. Milne
Executive Director, Quilt Alliance
amy.milne@quiltalliance.org