Quilting is a fabric art which involves stitching together layers of padding and fabric. Some sources suggest that the history of this art form may stretch back to about 3400 BCE. In colonial America, quilting was a way of displaying the fine needlework of the making and quilting was often the leisure time activity of wealthy women. In the United States, quilting did not become widespread until the 1840s when the industrial revolution made commercial fabrics easily available and affordable.
Shown below are some museum exhibits of quilting.
History Museum at Fort Missoula, Missoula, Montana
Necessity and Beauty is a display of quilts from the Museum’s permanent collection. According to the display:
“Initially overlooked as merely utilitarian women’s work and dismissed by the fine arts world as unworthy of consideration, quilting has in recent decades risen in esteem and now admired as objects of aesthetic beauty.”
According to the display:
“In the early 1900’s, to encourage sales, American tobacco companies inserted collectable novelty items into tobacco products. The novelties included a variety of textiles, with flannel flags of nations an especially popular subject. Quilters incorporated the collectible flags into their designs, with this style presenting a variety of national flags the most popular approach.”
According to the display:
“The Log Cabin quilt design dates from Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 “Log Cabin” campaign. This style introduced a new method of quilt-making calling for individual pieces of fabric, the logs of the cabin, to be sewn to an underlying piece of fabric as well as to each other.”
Prosser Historical Museum, Prosser, Washington
Shoshone County Mining and Smelting Museum, Kellogg, Idaho
National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio
One of the exhibits in the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio is the Memorial Quilt. On the 50th anniversary of the creation of the United States Air Force in 1997, a special commemorative quilt was approved. All 85 AF installations worldwide responded to participate in the project. On November 22, 1997, a “Grand Quilting Bee” was held in San Antonio, Texas where quilting students and volunteers contributed the final touches to Fabric of the Air Force. Each installation provided a 16 by 16-inch custom make square reflecting its mission. The quilt center features a 36-inch Air Force seal. A total of 100 hand-made squares are incorporated into the quilt.
Wenatchee Valley Museum, Wenatchee, Washington
According to the display:
“The solid and print fabrics used are very typical of circa 1920-1930. Self-made applied bias binding is hand stitched to front, folded to back and hand stitched. Pieces of hexagons are hand pieced flowers, have a yellow center.”
Fort Steele Heritage Village, British Columbia
In the dining room of the Scandinavian-style house, volunteers were involved in finishing a large quilt.
Swan Valley Historical Museum, Condon, Montana
Presby House Museum, Goldendale, Washington
Fort Dalles Museum, The Dalles, Oregon
Sherman County Historical Museum, Moro, Oregon
Heritage Museum, Libby, Montana
More museum exhibits
Museums 201/301/401 is a series in which similar exhibits from several museums are presented.
Museums 201: Telephone Exchanges (photo diary)
Museums 201: Bicycles (photo diary)
Museums 301: Pump Organs (photo diary)
Museums 301: Radios (photo diary)
Museums 301: Bathrooms (photo diary)
Museums 301: Medicines (photo diary)
Museums 401: Shoes (photo diary)
Museums 401: Typewriters (photo diary)