On this day in 1773, a group of colonists in Massachusetts posing as Mohawk Indians boarded three British tea ships and dumped 342 chests of tea, worth around $18,000, into Boston Harbor. The demonstration, now known as the Boston Tea Party, protested the British Parliament’s Tea Act, which allowed the East India Company to pay very low taxes and monopolize tea sales in the colonies.
This “Ohio Star with Sashing” was hand pieced and hand quilted by an unknown quilter in 1796 in Cape May, New Jersey. “The former owner of the quilt was Clara Bohm, a Cape May City school principal. She received it from a descendant of the original family, along with a note attributing it with a date of 1797.” The quilt was documented in 1990 by its owner during the Heritage Quilt Project of New Jersey, Inc.
View this quilt on The Quilt Index to find out! Read more about its history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view or click the “See full record” link to see a larger image and all the data entered about that quilt.
Source:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-boston-tea-party
Posted by Amy E. Milne
Executive Director, Quilt Alliance
amy.milne@quiltalliance.org