Centennial commemorative calico from L.L. Carroll's collection.
Maybe you could choose two colorways of some of the prints like the
leaf with a date print in the center here, a different
color scheme than the same print at the top of the page.
Or three colorways in George Washington.
Chanute, Kansas Times
They were available around the nation.
June, 1876, Manitowoc, Wisconsin
That year many communities held Centennial Calico Balls
in which women wore calico dresses and men calico print shirts,
but I haven't found one that required Centennial calicoes.
You can, however, imagine the market.
One of the most detailed prints.
gBWk~%24(KGrHqQOKiQE)9,GPRmLBMmqdv4)j!~~_12.jpg)
And a related patchwork print made into a doll quilt.
Printed in at least two colorways.
There were jokes...
And fiction.
Kenosha Times, June, 1876
National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian
The Bradbury Family quilt of Centennial print samples.
Merchant John Henry Bradbury was sent samples of Centennial prints for his New York City store.
Harriet Bradbury Rich (1861-1959) donated this quilt recalling that she, her mother and her grandmother began assembling the saved fabric into a simple pattern when she was twelve, about 1873. They might have chosen a nine patch to teach the twelve-year-old to piece but other quiltmakers
had other ideas.
Rather innovative ideas.
New England Quilt Museum Collection
Lydia Lamerson Thorpe, Clinton New Jersey, Hunterdon County Historical Society
New Jersey project & the Quilt Index
I'll be posting more about Centennial quilts throughout the spring.
See a post about a Centennial print featuring Andrew Jackson: