On This Day in History Quilt for March 29:
On this day in 1918, American actress and singer Pearl Mae Bailey was born in Southampton County, Virginia, and raised across the Chesapeake Bay in Newport News, Virginia. She made her performing debut at age 15, competing in and winning amateur contests at the Pearl Theater in Philadelphia and the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Bailey headlined an all-black cast of “Hello, Dolly!” with Cab Calloway in 1967. She was appointed a special ambassador to the United Nations in 1975, and earned a bachelor’s degree in theology from Georgetown University in 1985. President Reagan awarded Bailey the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988.
Carrie Odgers Rinehart of Newport News, Virginia, hand embroidered, appliqued and quilted “Patchy Zoo.” This quilt includes original poems written by the quiltmaker, and she inscribed it: “Original design for James De Groodt from his great Aunt Carrie Rinehart, Seventy years old, February 14, 1942.” A relative documented the quilt during The Heritage Quilt Project of New Jersey, Inc. in 1991.
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/Pearl_Bailey
Posted by Amy E. Milne
Executive Director, Quilt Alliance
amy.milne@quiltalliance.org