By: Merikay Waldvogel 

This paper focuses on the collecting habits of Mildred Dickerson of Birmingham, Alabama and her interaction with dozens of quilt pattern collectors throughout the United States. Expanding on an aunt’s small collection, Dickerson, at the midpoint of her life, embarked on an ambitious quest to collect all known quilt patterns. Out of necessity, collectors like Dickerson reached out to others for help in amassing patterns. Dickerson’s correspondence is particularly revealing of the workings of quilt pattern round robins.

 » Read more about: Uncoverings 1994
Mildred Dickerson: A Quilt Pattern Collector of the 1960s and 1970s  »

By: Kathleen Curtis Wilson 

The story of the Clinch Valley Blanket Mills, located in southwest Virginia from 1890 to 1950, reveals an interesting aspect of the Arts and Crafts Revival in Southern Appalachia. The company, owned and operated by C. E. Goodwin and his four sons, served as model of clever marketing, crafts revival, and quality workmanship. Goodwin used local labor and materials to weave on looms powered by water, steam,

 » Read more about: Uncoverings 1994
Weaving Cloth and Marketing Nostalgia: Clinch Valley Blanket Mills, 1890-1950 Cedar Bluff, Virginia  »

By: Jennifer F. Goldsborough 

In planning the 1994 exhibition of its Baltimore album quilt collection, Lavish Legacies, the Maryland Historical Society gathered a diverse group of scholars to research these extraordinary textiles in as wide a variety of ways as possible. This paper delineates the methodology of the study and the contributions of several sorts of historians, conservators, and contemporary quilters as well as discussing the most important findings and conclusions.

 » Read more about: Uncoverings 1994
An Album of Baltimore Album Quilt Studies  »

By: Fawn Valentine 

Scotch-Irish quiltmakers in rural West Virginia developed a unique interpretation of pieced-block quilt construction. Their quilts embody an aesthetic reflecting Scotch-Irish social history – the perennial condition of living on the periphery of mainstream society both geographically and philosophically. Cultural values espousing individual autonomy and self-reliance within a strong kinship structure are related to Scotch-Irish quiltmaking techniques. Prominent features of these quilts include: (1) blocks pieced in a repeating pattern but varied by changing figure/ground relationships and,

 » Read more about: Uncoverings 1994
Aesthetics and Ethnicity: Scotch-Irish Quilts in West Virginia  »

By: Anne Copeland and Beverly Dunivent 

Despite a number of negative images imposed upon kit quilts, they have played an important role in quilt history. Quiltmakers have used kits to further their quilting skills and design knowledge, using designs sometimes copied from museum artifacts, private collections, and winners of national quilting contests. Documented examples illustrate that kit quilts have never lost their appeal to quiltmakers and quilt viewers. Kits have continued in popularity independent of the changes and trends that have occurred in twentieth-century quiltmaking.

 » Read more about: Uncoverings 1994
Kit Quilts in Perspective  »