By: Virginia Gunn

This study identifies and interprets a category of quilts made largely from the gingham and chambray fabrics used for functional everyday clothing in the early twentieth century. These simple quilts have been overlooked because of the focus on the more popular Colonial Revival quilts that flourished at the same time. An in-depth analysis of primary sources, including magazines, catalogs, photographs, quilts, and contemporary industry literature, offers insights into these quilts and fabrics.

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The Gingham Dog or the Calico Cat: Grassroots Quilts of the Early Twentieth Century  »

By: Mary Holton Robare

This paper examines two signature quilts made and inscribed with the names of Quakers from a tight-knit, mid-nineteenth society. A brief overview of previous Quaker quilt scholarship precedes general issues of research such as quilt dating through use of historical records and explanations of Quaker customs. Perspectives on Quaker aesthetics in relation to religious tenets are offered. Diary entries and letters of contributors to the Pidgeon Family Quilt,

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Cheerful and Loving Persistence: Two Historical Quaker Quilts  »

By: Lynne Shultis

In 2003, I acquired a signature album redwork quilt top with a date of October 6, 1893. The pictorial images, embroidered signatures, and inscriptions provide information about a music teacher and her relatives, friends, and students. By studying the data on the quilt and examining nineteenth-century parlor music, children’s books, art needlework advice literature as well as census records, newspapers, and published research on Harmony Mills and Cohoes,

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Analysis of a Late Nineteenth-Century Redwork Quilt Top  »

By: Laurel Horton

The public response to the publication of Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad offers a complex example of a controversy involving the competing interest of authors, publishers, scholars, educators, and public audiences. Having observed and sometimes participated in the various dialogues created among these groups over several years, the author describes in this essay her personal journey through many layers of meaning.

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The Underground Railroad Quilt Code: The Experience of Belief  »

By: Jonathan Gregory

Rose Frances Good Kretsinger stands out as one of the most talented quiltmakers of the twentieth century. This article examines primary sources to discover the artistic and stylistic influences upon Kretsinger during her formative years. She was influenced by a creative atmosphere in her family’s home and by the ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement she studied while enrolled at The Art Institute of Chicago at the turn of the twentieth century.

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The Joy of Beauty: The Creative Life and Quilts of Rose Kretsinger  »

By: Eleanor Knowles Dugan

During her lifetime, Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth (1886-1967) single-handedly amassed one of the largest and most extensive private collections of quilts and other textiles in Britain and possibly the world. Her family humorously dismissed her obsession as “Rachel’s tat” (worthless rags), yet her legacy is now valued at $10 million and housed in an archive for researchers and scholars. Rachel was a passionate, master needle-woman and effective social activist who used every item in her collection as a teaching tool during her long and very colorful life.

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Rachel’s Tat  »

By: Carol Williams Gebel

The red and green appliqué quilt tradition of the nineteenth century spawned designs that remained favorites into the twentieth century. The Princess Feather design was one of its most popular examples. This study investigates the origin of this design in regard to its name (princely or floral) and its country of origin (England or the United States). The discovery of a possible regional design preference is considered.

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The Princess Feather: Exploring a Quilt Design  »