On this day in 1911, the New York Public Library was dedicated in a ceremony led by President William H. Taft. The building is the largest marble structure every constructed in the United States. The library took over 14 years to complete and was designed to house a collection of more than a million books. Today the library is visited and used by more than 10 million people annually and more than two million people have borrowing privileges.
This quilt, titled “Little Snake River Valley Friends of the Library Memory Quilt,” was completed in 1996 in Savery/Baggs, Wyoming. Agnes Stock and Mary L. Duncan came up with the idea for the quilt and led the group who made it. An poignant note is included in this Quilt Index record: “Quiltmakers of this isolated Wyoming/Colorado valley had little access to new techniques until a new woman, Kerry Jonke, moved to the valley with her husband who was a forest service (or other government) employee. She showed the quilters how to use a rotary cutter, plastic rulers, and to be very careful about measurements. But she died very young, at 33, of cancer. However, quilts made in the valley show her influence after 1990.”
The quilt was documented in 2008 during the Wyoming Quilt History Project.
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/new-york-public-library-dedicated
Posted by Amy E. Milne
Executive Director, Quilt Alliance
amy.milne@quiltalliance.org