Part of a comprehensive catalog of the International Quilt Study Center and Museum collection, American Quilts in the Industrial Age, 1760–1870: The International Quilt Study Center and Museum Collections (February 2018) highlights the dazzling designs and intricate needlework of America’s treasured material culture. From whole cloth to pieced quilts to elaborate appliqué examples, all reflecting various design movements such as Neoclassicism and Eastern exoticism, the contributing authors address the development of quilt making in America from its inception in the 1700s to the period of the U.S. Civil War.
“This comprehensive catalog will be extremely useful to quilt scholars and lovers around the world,” said Aimee Newell, executive director of the Luzerne County Historical Society (Pennsylvania) and the author of Stitch in Time: The Needlework of Aging Women in Antebellum America. “It does an excellent job of showing us how each quilt has something to teach us.”
Covering more than one hundred years of quilt making, this volume examines the period’s quilts from both an artistic and a historical perspective. The contributors provide critical information regarding the founding of the republic and the influential republican values and ideals manifested in the quilts of this era. They also address the role that immigration and industrialization played in the evolution of materials and styles. With full-color photographs of nearly six hundred quilts, this new catalog provides new insights into American society.
Below is just a sample of what American Quilts in the Industrial Age, 1760-1870 has to offer.
All images courtesy of the International Quilt Study Center and Museum, Lincoln, NE.
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