Bowers Museum presents ‘The American Quilt’ in honor of nation’s 250th anniversary
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The making of an American quilt requires more than skill. While a deft hand at needle and thread is certainly necessary, the end product is not a beautiful heirloom quilt without centuries of global trade, politics, economic shifts and technological innovation.
This month, Bowers Museum in Santa Ana presents “the American Quilt: Cloth and Commerce,” which explores the history of American quilting in conjunction with the nation’s 250th anniversary.
“As we mark the 90th anniversary of the museum, we are honored to open ‘the American Quilt: Cloth and Commerce’ an exhibition that speaks to the heart of American creativity, resilience and enterprise,” Seán O’Harrow, chief executive of Bowers Museum, said on Thursday. “It is especially meaningful to unveil this exhibition as the United States also approaches a meaningful birthday, the 250th anniversary, a moment that invites reflection on the stories that have shaped our shared identity.”
Curated by Tara Miller, “The American Quilt,” which opened Saturday and will run through Aug. 30, is supported by Flying Geese Quilters and Repiecers Southern California Study Group.
Quilts are typically a layered textile, traditionally made up of three layers with two fabrics encasing a filling made of cotton or wool. The exhibition follows the progression of fabrics and quilting techniques as they evolved alongside American politics and economic changes, presenting a retrospective over more than two centuries of quilting.
Miller, a quilt historian, pattern designer and instructor well versed in American quilt history and textiles, led a preview of the exhibition on May 21. Miller highlighted points of interest throughout the collection, including a wholecloth quilt made by Lucretia Smith in 1776.
“This is our oldest quilt in the gallery and it is very fitting that this quilt marks the founding of the United States. It is a wholecoth wool from Massachusetts,” Miller said. “What is really remarkable about this piece is there was a period just before the American Revolution when we were not allowed to industrialize the manufacturing of cloth here. We were made dependent on Britain for those things.”
Under the Wool Act of 1699, American colonists were forbidden from exporting wool and wool products. Smith’s quilt was made from wool cultivated, sheered, combed, spun and woven in America and then dyed with indigo, a leafy legume that was also grown here.
“This quilt is what independence looks like at the fiber level,” said Miller.
The exhibition also highlights Sarah Angelina Andrews Whitman and Gertrude Spurr Whitman’s Centennial Handkerchief Quilt (c. 1883), fashioned from handkerchiefs made to commemorate the American Centennial in 1876. Sarah Whitman collected them during a visit to the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition and made them into a quilt with her daughter a few years later.
“The Centennial was a really big deal and they printed these handkerchiefs to celebrate,” said Miller. “This is very much a piece of American history.”
While a good quilt will keep the chill away, the history surrounding them isn’t all warm and fuzzy. Miller reminds viewers to consider the story behind some of the quilts, which can connect to dark moments in U.S. history. Up until Emancipation following the Civil War, for example, the cotton used in American quilts was grown using the forced labor of enslaved African Americans.
“While they are beautiful and extraordinary objects, there is a deep, deep history behind them,” said Miller.
Alongside meticulously geometric patterned quilts are examples of crazy quilts made in a patchwork fashion with asymmetrical scraps of fabric, which was popularized during the Victorian era.
“The Victorians were wild for the ornate and elaborate. They would decorate with crazy quilts by laying them over their piano or sofa, or they might hang them on a wall in their parlor,” Miller said. “So they were not sleeping under it.”
Visitors can explore quilt making on their own with interactive sections of the exhibition that include creating a quilting pattern using flat geometric pieces or using colored pencils to color in a patterned quilting square to add to a large friendship quilt.
The American Quilt program series opened Saturday with an opening day lecture with Miller and continues through August with events like “Using African Prints in Quilts” with Kena Tangi Dorsey on June 27 at 1:30 p.m. and the Bowers Museum Quilt Fair on Aug. 19, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
O’Harrow hopes all visitors will find a connection to quilting that speaks to them.
“Quilts are among the most democratic of American art forms,” O’Harrow said. “Created in homes, workshops and communities across the country, they embody the ingenuity of everyday makers, men and women who transformed necessity into beauty and fabric into narrative.”
“The American Quilt: Cloth and Commerce” is on view through Aug. 30 at Bowers Museum, 2002 North Main St., Santa Ana. For details and tickets, visit bowers.org
