Quilt by Pocahontas Virginia Gay (1831-1922)
Early 20th century
Collection of the National Museum of American History
Last week we looked at a pair of late-19th-century crazy quilts with CDV portraits printed on fabric. Other quiltmakers used the CDV image in different ways. Pocahontas Gay was a needlework teacher in Staunton, Virginia at the state school for the hearing and visually impaired about the time she stitched this embroidered variation on a log cabin quilt.
Some of the blocks have painted details. The Pocahontas block
looks to have been painted on white fabric as does the baby.
She included a few of her Confederate heroes, here Robert E. Lee.
I'd guess she drew her portraits from this popular
pair of Davis and Lee.
And this one of Stonewall Jackson...
See more about Miss Gay and her quilt at these posts:
Union supporters also were inspired by CDV's.
The officer in boots in the bottom of this top looks a lot like General Winfield Scott
first commander of the Union Armies.
The portrait is one of many appliques drawn from
photographic images in the top known as the Constitution Quilt.
Winfield Scott with his sword in a CDV by the
Brady Studios
And in the bottom right--- General U.S. Grant?
This applique sampler with the mysterious ship in the middle (not the USS Constitution)
was probably made originally in the 1880s.
See a post on the quilt and the ship here:
The Shelburne Museum owns this appliqued sampler with a portrait
of Abraham Lincoln. With the horse, cat and hearts one could guess
it's from New York. Date: late-19th-century (guess from the bad photo).
The portrait in the arm chair is from another Brady Studios
photo---a very popular CDV taken early in his Presidency.
The quilts I've shown were made after 1880 when heroes from a war 15 or 20 years ago were aging and dying --- Lee in 1870; Grant in 1885; the CDVs still saved and perhaps displayed.
But here's a portrait from a quilt dated 1867
by Lucinda Honstain of Brooklyn, New York. Did she use
this image by the Brady Studios for inspiration. Is the General
in striped pants sitting in an arm chair?
Lucinda's remarkable applique quilt is in the collection
of the International Quilt Museum.
See a post here:
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