On This Day in History Quilt for March 28:
On this day in 1979 a pressure value in the Unit-2 reactor failed at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant causing contaminated cooling water to drain from the open valve. Without a cooling source the core began to dangerously overheat. The plant was built on a sandbar on Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River, 10 miles downstream from the state capitol in Harrisburg.
This is a detail of a quilt titled “The Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue,” a collaborative quilt made by Georgann Englinski and the Seamsters Union (Local #500) of Lawrence, Kansas. Each block shows different ways quilt icon Sunbonnet Sue met her death, and this block illustrates Sue’s demise at Three Mile Island. The quilt is part of the Michigan State University Museum Collection.
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/reactor-overheats-at-three-mile-island
Posted by Amy E. Milne
Executive Director, Quilt Alliance
amy.milne@quiltalliance.org