Paper templates dated 1813 and 19.....
The Cushman siblings.
Photos are all from the University of Rhode Island.
See links below.
The contents, reportedly undisturbed for 80 years until 1917, must have held bittersweet memories for Susan who lost her 2-year-old son to a head injury in May, 1836 and then her 28-year-old doctor husband to yellow fever the day after Christmas. She soon left Charleston with baby Emily Hasell Crouch (1836-1926) for Providence Rhode Island, living with her parents until their deaths during the Civil War.
The family home at 102 George Street, Providence
Built in 1795, the house was torn down between 1917 & 1925.
The 1880 census shows Susan and Emily in the family home running a boarding house
for (Brown University?) students on George Street in a neighborhood of women.
Irish-born servant Mary McGee also lives with them. Emily was a drawing teacher;
several of her watercolors are in the Cushman Collection.
Center of Quilt Top #149
The three quilt tops, as you can see from the papers at the top of the page,
were a work in progress, what we might call a multi-generational quilt.
The trunks contained a partially-finished top hexagon mosaic top and the fabric that Susan planned to use to complete her quilt. (And probably rosette blocks). Her younger relatives, particularly great-nephew Franklin Cushman, reworked the original hexagon top, creating three tops of old and new stitchery. Dates on the paper templates: 1775 - 1940.
#151
#151
Hasell is said to have helped with
design and piecing in South Carolina.
Franklin R. Cushman (1870-1952) of the younger generation taught
history and industrial design. He made scrapbooks with notations
from the family collection and donated those along with the three tops he'd
reworked, garments, etc. to URI.
Franklin added other fabrics to his collection.
#149
#150
This top has later papers behind the hexagons and is thought
to have been continued into the 1930s.
#150 center
Links
A search for Cushman in the URI Textile Collection:
URI Department of Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design Forum & 2018 exhibit inspired by Rachel May’s book ‘An American Quilt: Unfolding a Story of Family and Slavery.’
Forum: Tales of North and South in Antebellum America: A Complicated Web
Rachel May, An American Quilt: Unfolding a Story of Family and Slavery, 2018.
"May envisions the world of the urban enslaved women owned by the Cushman ancestors in Charleston, South Carolina, and explores the oft-silenced connections and economic benefits of slavery to [northerners.]"
Preview:
Rachel May & Linda Welters, The Cushman Quilt Tops: A Tale of North and South:
Hasell W. Crouch's grave:
Susan Williamson Crouch's grave:
Quilt Index Files for the three tops:
Susan never remarried. Her 1902
death certificate from FamilySearch.
