Saturday, November 30, 2019

Montana GAR Quilt


This fancy hexagon quilt is not the kind of quilt you'd expect to be connected the the GAR veteran's organization, but among the embroidered, elongated six-sided shapes are several referencing veterans.

"ANACONDA April 9, 1891" 
 "GAR" (Grand Army of the Republic)
"Men of Butte Honored"

76" x 60"
Collection Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture
Spokane, Washington

Curatorial notes tell us: "Both Butte and Anaconda are inscribed on this quilt, and both had GAR posts."

The Butte "Encampment," a reunion in 1911




William Henry Safford (1844 - 1919)

The Great Falls Tribune has done a series on Montana Civil War veterans like this one by Ken Robison on New Yorker William Henry Safford who joined the Union army at 16.


Spokane's Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture has a quilt show up right now. Memory and Meaning: Textiles from the Permanent Collection does not include this quilt but you can see more online. The exhibit is up through January 12, 2020.
https://www.northwestmuseum.org/exhibits/current-exhibits