Workt By Hand: Hidden Labor and Historical Quilts
is the name of a current exhibit and new catalog
from the Brooklyn Museum
Here's a link to more information about the show:
Elizabeth Welsh. Quilt, circa 1825–40.
Appliquéd cottons, 110 1/2 x 109 in.
Brooklyn Museum, Gift of The Roebling Society, 78.36
The Museum has some exceptional quilts including the cover quilt, a fabulous appliqued eagle that is attributed to a Virginia woman Elizabeth Welsh. (More about this quilt in another post.)
Delectable Mountains Quilt, ca. 1850. 97 x 83 1/4 in.
Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Charles L. Livingston, Jr., 62.141.16
I worked on the catalog's introduction, participating in a roundtable on the social context of quilts, which I'll post about later. I have not yet seen the quilts in the cloth. The quilt cataloguing was done by Dr. Carolyn Ducey of the International Quilt Study Center and Museum.
Medallion Quilt, ca.1830.
103 1/4 x 104 in. Brooklyn Museum,
Gift of Mrs. William Sterling Peters, 49.27
Here's a link to the museum bookstore where you can buy the catalog:
Pictorial Quilt, circa 1795.
91 x 103¼ in. (231.1 x 262.3 cm).
Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 41.285.
And here's a link to their collections page so you can see photos of their holdings:
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/search/?q=quilt&prev_q=&x=0&y=0
Victoria Royall Broadhead Tumbling Blocks Quilt,
circa 1865–70. Silk, velvet, wood, 64 x 68 in.
Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Richard Draper, 53.59.1.
This impressive silk quilt was made by a woman with the equally impressive name of Victoria Regina Royall. Victoria, born in Virginia in 1839 a year after Queen Victoria's coronation, married Garland Carr Broadhead, a professor of geology at the University of Missouri in 1890.
The quilt show will be up until September 15. The Brooklyn Museum has several other concurrent shows that make a trip worthwhile, including:
- John Singer Sargent Watercolors (93 of them) up from April 5 - July 28
- American Drawing Before 1945 (100 drawings) through May 26
- El Anatsui - 30 pieces-through Aug 4
And Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party is a permanent installation there.