Label Text:
Building a Collection, September 27, 2025-February 23, 2025: This quilt is an example of a type distinguished by decorative red outline stitches on plain white cotton, which became popular from the late 1880s to the 1910s. The 36 squares feature a variety of images including flowers, birds on branches, fans, and figures, many of which were derived from designs published in magazines such as the Ladies’ Home Journal or adapted from contemporary print sources, especially children’s illustrated books by Kate Greenaway. Alongside the embroidered flowers and figures appear 138 names written in ink, indicating that this is also a “friendship” or “signature” quilt, frequently undertaken as fundraising projects by churches or civic organizations with the donors’ contributions recognized with the addition of their names. The names that appear here are families with deep roots in Charlemont, including Rices, Hawkes, Uptons, Mayhews, Averys, McClouds, Edridges, Legates, Turners, Cooleys, Crittendons, Pecks, and Warners, to name just a few. The quilt was in the possession of the Avery family, who founded the A.L. Avery General Store in Charlemont in 1861. The quilt passed to A.L.’s son, Burton, and eventually descended to his granddaughter, Karen Avery Solon, who donated the quilt to Historic Deerfield in 2023.
Subjects:
Textile fabrics; Cotton Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2023.30 |
