Quilt once in the collection of the American Textile History Museum.
The American Textile History Museum, a Smithsonian affiliate, closed last year.
2017 was spent transferring collections to other museums and institutions.
The museum in Lowell, Massachusetts, did not have many quilts. What they had in abundance were records of the textile printing industry. I spent a few days there many years ago looking at their swatch cards and sample books.
"The first delaine that ever came in to Lowell 1830"
Eliza Ann Cunningham's Sewing Diary with
a page of prints from 1861
Bolt label from Hamilton Print Works
Their library collection called the Osborne Library has been transferred to the Cornell University Libraries in New York. While in Lowell at the ATHM the Osborne library included printed, pictorial and manuscript material: books, pamphlets, government documents, trade catalogs, advertising material, prints, photos and business records.
"portions of the library, archive, and museum collections – including its extensive holdings of maps, dye books and recipes, patents, and trade literature, as well as curatorial collections, including machinery and costumes -- will be transferred to other institutions."
"The majority of the collection of historic textile machinery has been sent to the Randolph Heritage Conservancy (RHC) in North Carolina."
Sample card from Allen Print Works with a lace print/border print.
Materials related to textile production, science and agriculture are now part of the Albert R. Mann Library, which specializes in agriculture, the life sciences, and human ecology. Much of the library is at the Kheel Center at Cornell. "Though the items will become part of the collections of Mann, Kheel and [Rare Manuscripts] most will be housed at the Library Annex."
Trade catalogs, trade sheets, and trade cards have been transferred to The Henry Ford Museum in Michigan.
"The remaining collections have been dispersed to museums and charitable organizations across the country."
http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2017/03/library-acquires-vast-collection-textile-industry-materials