Highlights Archives
Historical Museum's Quilt Collection Goes Online
For more than a century quilts have been a symbol to Americans of a simpler, purer, pre-industrial lifestyle. As a powerful icon, they have been used to symbolize communities, whether women's clubs or AIDS sufferers, and commemorate significant anniversaries — especially the American Bicentennial in 1976. The fact that each quilt is a unique creation, sometimes functional, sometimes artistic, makes them even more intriguing.
The Wisconsin Historical Museum acquired its first quilt in 1914 and, since then, has added over 150 more to its collection. These large and beautiful textiles, which are difficult to display and show off, are now available at our Museum Online Collections Web page. For the first time, visitors can easily peruse images, descriptions and histories of these folk art pieces.
The museum's collection represents more than 200 years of quilt history, with the oldest ones dating to the late 18th century, a time when these bed coverings were a luxury item made by wealthy women. Since fabrics were extraordinarily expensive, quilts were not originally made by frugal women using leftover scraps as commonly thought. Once cottons and silks began to be mass-produced in the early 19th century, however, quilts and quilting bees became a common American phenomenon practiced by all levels of society.
During the 1830s and '40s, ladies' magazines began to reminisce about old-fashioned quilting. In 1835 Godey's Lady's Book was the first American publication to print a patchwork pattern, beginning quilting's transformation from a luxury craft to a form of popular culture.
As fewer women had the time to make elaborate quilts, quilting quality and design deteriorated towards the end of the century. Quilters began to look for shortcuts, and enterprising individuals accommodated them by providing kits with pieces pre-cut or even basted together.
Around 1915, new fabrics and colors were available to quilters, and women's magazines encouraged quilters to break with the past and create quilts with "modern" designs. When fabric became scarce during World War II, quilting fell out of fashion. The American Bicentennial rekindled an interest in historic crafts, resulting in a quilting revival that has continued to today. All of these trends can be documented in the Wisconsin Historical Museum's quilt collection, primarily with quilts made in Wisconsin.
Besides providing an overview of quilt history, the museum's collection is particularly strong in African American quilts from late-20th-century Milwaukee and signature quilts from the mid-19th century (six are in the classic "Courthouse Square" or "Album" pattern). The museum is also proud of its two calamanco (glazed wool) quilts from the 18th century, a white trapunto quilt from the early 19th century, and its large collection of doll and crib quilts.
Also, look for a new book in spring 2008, tentatively titled American Folk Art Quilts. Written by Milwaukee quilt author Maggi McCormick Gordon, it will feature approximately 30 quilts from the museum's collection with six of them having pattern information.
The realization of the online quilt gallery was made possible by a generous donation by Geoff Hoffman of Hoffman Manufacturing Corporation, who designed and built an 11-foot-square collapsible quilt photography stand for the Wisconsin Historical Museum as part of this project.
:: Posted March 30, 2007
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