Source: http://nequiltmuseum.org

The New England Quilting Museum’s groundbreaking exhibition on women’s material history, Women’s Writes: Signature Quilts and Their Stories tells the little-known story of women in the 19th and early 20th centuries taking social action by by combining needle and thread with the power of the pen. The curators for the exhibit, NEQM Acting Curator Laura Lane and quilt historian Lorie Chase, have assembled an extensive group of signature quilts, drawn from both the museum’s own permanent collection and borrowed from private collections, showcasing the wide stylistic and political range of signature quilts.

At a time when women did not have the vote, property rights, or occupational opportunities, and were just beginning to have beyond-basic literacy skills, creating signature quilts was a chance at self-expression and self-sufficiency. Frequently made as charity fund-raisers, signature quilts gave women a measure of both political and economic independence, enabling them to fund their favorite social causes entirely on their own. Groups of women raised money for temperance, abolition, church renovations, the Red Cross, and women’s social clubs by raffling off signature quilts. Many women’s groups also signed the quilts they made for troops during the Civil War, often adding patriotic verses to their signatures.

While making signature quilts for political or social causes was a major means of women’s self-expression, many more personal signature quilts were made. These quilts, too, provided a means for women to assert a more active role within their families and communities. The giving of a signature quilt placed women front and center at major family or local events, such as marriages, births, the departure of an important town resident, or the commemoration of a civic event. The more personal quilts provided an even greater chance at expression, and many signers added favorite poems or Bible verses, as well as personal messages to recipients, making signature quilts a unique window into everyday American women’s values. With family quilts making up a large proportion of these works, they are also of significant interest to genealogists.

So important were signature quilts in 19th century American society that by the middle of the century, industry provided stamps to embellish signatures, patterns, sample verses, and calligraphy advice to the nation’s quilt makers. The tradition continues and is still honored today by contemporary quiltmakers.

Women’s Writes will run from May 13 through July 11, 2010. Support for this exhibition is provided in part by Mancuso Show Management.

Want to learn more about signature quilts, women’s activisim through quilting, or how to made a frienship quilt? Check out our reading list, featuring just some of the books in library on this and other topics on quilting, fiber arts, and women’s history.

New England Quilt Museum

18 Shattuck Street
Lowell, Massachusetts 01852
(978) 452-4207 Ext.15

HOURS & DIRECTIONS

Tuesday through Saturday, 10-4

From May throughOctober, we are also open Sunday, 12-4.

CLOSED MONDAYS

For directions to the museum, visit the directions page.