by Quilt Alliance | May 6, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1933, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order to enact the Works Progress Administration (WPA), one of several Depression-era relief programs that put unemployed people to work in 1935. Three million were employed by WPA jobs alone. Civil projects like building bridges, highways, schools, hospitals, and public arts work like murals, literary publications and plays were all funded by WPA funds. Minnie Benberry of Western Kentucky, mother-in-law of quilt historian Cuesta Benberry made this “W.P.A. Tulip” quilt around 1930. From this Quilt Index record: “Mrs. Benberry (Cuesta) noted that this quilt was one of the WPA quilts from the Great Depression era. She explained that the government hired artists and craftspersons to make quilts during that time of economic hardship. This program served two purposes: These quilts were something of use, utilitarian, yet beautiful and also gave work to talented Americans who had no other means of employment. This quilt is part of the Cuesta Benberry Quilt and Ephemera Collection, donated to Michigan State University Museum in 2008 by Benberry’s son. 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/fdr-creates-the-wpa Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | May 5, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1824, American poet and author Lucy Larcom was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, then a rural town north of Boston. Larcom’s autobiography, A New England Girlhood (1889), is about the age of industrialization and her role in it as a textile mill worker – beginning at age eleven. Here is an excerpt from her poem “Weaving:” So up and down before her loom She paces on, and to and fro, Till sunset fills the dusty room, And makes the water redly glow, As if the Merrimack’s calm flood Were changed into a stream of blood Jenny Jones of Spray, North Carolina made this Brick pattern quilt for her mother in 1915 using samples from the Spray woolen mill. The edges of the pieces are all pinked (from a sample book) and briar stitched together to the backing fabric. The quilt was documented by it’s owner in 1985 as part of the North Carolina Quilt Project. 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.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/lucy-larcom/ Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | May 2, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1844, inventor and engineer Elijah J. McCoy was born in Canada to two fugitive slaves who escaped from Kentucky via the Underground Railroad network. The saying “the real McCoy”, meaning the real thing, has been associated with McCoy’s invention of an oil-drip cup that railway engineers asked for by name to avoid inferior versions of the product. Mary McCoy of Iowa hand pieced, appliqued and quilted this Whig Rose quilt between 1840-1860. McCoy, originally from Ohio, was the wife of a farmer and the mother of 10 children. The family member who inherited the quilt documented it in 1988 as part of the Iowa Quilt Research Project. 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://blackinventor.com/elijah-mccoy/ Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Apr 30, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
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. Read about a quilt attributed Martha Washington in Barbara Brackman’s “Quilt 1812 War and Piecing” blog. 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://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Washington Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Apr 29, 2014 | On this Day in History Quilts series
On this day in 1968, the controversial rock musical “Hair” premiered on Broadway after a 6-week run at Joseph Papp’s Public Theater in the East Village. The show debuted the song “Aquarius” which became an icon of ‘60’s counterculture, with references to sex and drugs. Lizzie Longmire of Andersonville, Tennessee hand quilted this Hairpin Catcher, or Brickwork, one patch quilt between 1901-1929. Longmire used men’s wool suiting fabric for the front of the quilt and handwoven coverlets for the back side (detail photo below). The quilt was documented (by the family member who inherited it) during the Quilts of Tennessee project. 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/hair-premieres-on-broadway Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
