Collection Highlights
Portrait of two girls
Date:
Object Number:
PR.012.1.326.Box12
Medium:
Ambrotype
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Museum Collections
Luce Center
Pieced quilt square
Object Number:
INV.11961a
Date:
ca. 1873
Medium:
Cotton, ink and pencil
Dimensions:
Overall: 9 x 9 x 1/8 in. ( 22.9 x 22.9 x 0.3 cm )
Marks:
handwritten in ink: on obverse: "Miss Clara Bidwell"
handwritten in pencil: on reverse: "Clara Bidwell / 1878"
Description:
Pieced white cotton plain-weave quilt square centering a "Dutch tulip" or "Caesar's crown" variation motif in over-dyed green and yellow calico and golden-yellow and brown calico printed fabrics, circa 1865; hand-pieced and sewn in a hand running-stitch; inscribed in ink by hand on obverse "Miss Clara Bidwell" and "Clara Bidwell 1873" in pencil on the reverse.
Gallery Label:
This quilt square was probably made for a "friendship" quilt, also known as a "album" or "signature" quilt. They were popular in the mid-nineteenth century and usually given to an individual to commemorate a birth, marriage or move away from the local area. Squares were often given as keepsakes to ladies of a community or church congregation who were moving west. This square relates to the appliquéd copper and brown maltese cross star-printed calico quilt square (INV.11961b).
Due to ongoing research, information about this object is subject to change.
