Saturday, November 21, 2015

Civil War Memorial Quilt 1866


In her 1976 book Kentucky Quilts and Their Makers Mary Washington Clarke showed a black and white detail of a "Civil War Memorial Quilt" dated 1866. The credit line is Kentucky Museum, gift of Henry Porter Brown

Apparently the velvet hexagons have held up better than the satins and taffetas.

I was struck by the similarity in the embroidery styles between this quilt and one in the collection of the Museum of the Confederacy, made for Jefferson Davis, shown in the color photos.
Read the post here.

At first I thought they were the same quilt.

But they are two different though similar quilts.
The only photo Clarke showed was the central area with the signature and date, 
"Vic W.S./A.D. 1866"

Above is the center hexagon in the Museum of the Confederacy's quilt, 
It looks to be shattered satin with a flower perhaps.

Clarke described the pattern:
"six-pointed star pieced in hexagon blocks of the Flower Garden type,
central hexagon of black velvet... embroidered in gold threads...names...appear in the outer rim of black hexagons in this central block...embroidered in one of these outer pieces is Gens of C.S.A. [the block shown.]...six points of the large overall star show similar constellations [with embroidered names]
I can find no other record of this star quilt made of hexagons.

Clarke identifies it as a Memorial Quilt in the Kentucky Museum (fig 32) ....worn almost to tatters and its maker is unidentified. The donor thought it was from the Porter family and it was "Found in a drawer after mother died."

Other names Clarke mentions (aside from Confederate Generals) are Dr. Stallard,  S. Huston, Dr. Combs, Richard G Caruthers, A. Strange, M. Winans. She also notes the back of the quilt is "silk in small black and white check."

Where is this quilt today?


4 comments:

Suzanne A said...

For clarification, did you contact the museum and ask if they still had it?https://www.wku.edu/kentuckymuseum/

Suzanne A said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
RodFleck said...

Fascinating the discussion of the CW quilt at the museum. Barbara there is another quilt that I recall seeing about 30 years ago when I was an airmen in Biloxi Mississippi that was an embroidered CW quilt done by the wifes of the Confederate cabinet as I recall. It was amazing, even in the SUVCW Yankee's opinion.

Barbara Brackman said...

I haven't contacted the curator.