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Quilts: Flora Botanica
July 12 - October 12, 2008
A new quilt exhibition
at the Spencer Museum of Art considers the sources of inspiration for many
of the classic botanical patterns in American quiltmaking. Quilts: Flora
Botanica opens Saturday, July 12 and continues through October 12, 2008
in the museum's Kress Gallery.
Botanical images have been among the most popular in American
quilts. Rather than drawing directly from their gardens, most quiltmakers
drew from centuries of folk art traditions. The abstractions we see as fruits
and flowers can be traced to many cultures on many continents, including
Greek mythology, the Judeo-Christian Bible, and Islamic, Indian, and Persian
traditions. This exhibition examines sources and symbolism in floral pattern
from various perspectives. Using other objects from the museum collection,
the exhibition frames the artistic and cultural context in which the quilts
were made, with references to Indian and Germanic folk arts, politics and
popular culture.
Two particularly important quilts with the three-dimensional
embroidery known as "stump work" will be on display. The exhibition
will also focus on the concept of a teaching art museum providing inspiration
using six contemporary copies of the antique quilts stitched by local artists
from the Kaw Valley Quilters Guild. A pair of quilts, one from 1850 and
one from 1930, will showcase master-quiltmaker Rose Kretsinger's use of
the museum's quilt collection in the early 20th century.
The exhibition was organized for the Spencer by Barbara
Brackman, an internationally known textiles expert and Lawrence resident
who is the Spencer's honorary curator of quilts, in collaboration with Susan
Earle, SMA's curator of European and American art.
Gallery wall labels from the exhibition
-
- Introductory label
-
- Quilts: Flora Botanica
-
- Botanical images have been among the most popular in United States
quilts. Rather than drawing directly from their gardens, most quiltmakers
drew from centuries of folk art traditions. The abstractions we see as
fruits and flowers can be traced to many cultures on many continents, including
Greek mythology, the Judeo-Christian Bible, and Islamic, Indian, and Persian
traditions. This exhibition examines sources and symbolism in floral pattern
from various perspectives. Quilts range in age from the late-18th century
to the recent past, including several new quilts drawn from the old patterns
in the Spencer collection.
-
- This exhibition was organized by Barbara Brackman, the Spencer's honorary
curator of quilts. The quilt collection here inspired her interest in antique
quilts. Over the years she has drawn many patterns from their traditional
designs. Some of these designs have been stitched by her friends in the
Kaw Valley Quilters' Guild, including Georganna Clark, Gloria Donohue,
Cindy Korb, Doris Lux, Julie McEathron, and Gail Stewart. Their copy quilts
are exhibited here.
-
-
- Labels
-
- 1
- Christina Hays Malcom
- circa 1820-before 1884, United States
- Sunflower quilt, circa 1840-1884
- cotton, appliqué, quilting
- Gift of Miss Iva James, 1972.0125
-
- Christina Malcom made this quilt for her son Jonathan, stitching his
name on the back. Though she was born in North Carolina, she spent much
of her life in Indiana, a state whose sunflowers seem to have inspired
her unusual quilt. Floral designs provide inspiration for many quilts,
yet few quilters actually drew from nature. This quilt seems to be an exception.
She carefully observed the broad, almost heart-shaped leaves, the sturdy
stalk, and the golden petals.
-
-
- 2
- Julia A. Chalmers Smith
- circa 1825-?, United States, New York
- Sunburst quilt, circa 1840-1880
- cotton, piecing, quilting
- William Bridges Thayer Memorial, 1928.0915
-
- According to a label relating family history, Julia Chalmers made this
quilt before her marriage in Galway, New York. The complex pieced design
was named Sun, Sunburst, or Rising Sun in twentieth-century
quilt pattern literature. We can also view it as a sunflower, an abstraction
of nature's geometry.
-
-
- 3
- Susan Black Stayman
- 1828-?, United States, Illinois
- Moss Rose quilt, 1853
- cotton, appliqué, quilting
- Gift of Miss Mary Stayman, 1949.0024.01
-
- Susan Stayman won awards at the 1866 Kansas State Fair for "two
fancy patch quilts, of entirely original design." This splendid quilt
may have been one of them. Family stories say it also won a prize at an
Illinois fair in 1855. Her daughter called it Moss Rose, which to
Victorian gardeners meant a variety of hybrid rose with a sticky, aromatic
"moss" on the stems and leaves.
-
- Roses were quiltmakers' favorite floral images. Few are as detailed
as this representation with thorns and naturalistic buds. The border features
a simpler wild rose, a five-petaled flower. Stayman may have drawn roses
directly from her garden, but three similar quilts have been found in Iowa,
Michigan, and Pennsylvania. A truly "original" floral design
is rare in nineteenth-century quilts.
-
- Quilters can appreciate Stayman's masterful handwork. She used a blanket
stitch (also called a buttonhole stitch) to cover the patches' raw edges.
It is unfortunate she chose the solid pink fabric for her wild rose border
because it's lost much color over the years. The green and Turkey-red cottons
were more reliable.
-
-
- 4
- Susan Black Stayman
- 1828-?, United States, Illinois
- Dahlia Wreath quilt, 1855
- cotton, appliqué, quilting
- Gift of Miss Mary Stayman, 1949.0025.02
-
- This appliquéd quilt must be the other of the pair of "fancy
patch quilts of entirely original design" that won acclaim at the
1866 Kansas State Fair. The needlework is certainly exceptional with quilting
measuring 12 stitches to an inch (measured on the top of the quilt). Quilters
are usually content with eight or nine stitches per inch.
-
- Stayman looked to folk art traditions where this flat, eight-lobed
shape has long represented the rose, a powerful cultural symbol. The name
Dahlia Wreath is from the family. Other published names are Wreath
of Roses and Kentucky Rose.
-
- Stayman's concept of original design probably differed from ours. Hundreds
of similar quilts survive. Within folk art's strict boundaries she created
small innovations, for example, the specific arrangement of 32 leaves
on each wreath and the border geometry, a clever pattern of modular arcs
forming a running vine.
-
-
- 5
- Rena Coon Thomas
- United States, Illinois
- Rose of Sharon quilt, circa 1870-1890
- cotton, appliqué, quilting
- Gift of Mrs. Minnie S. Moodie, 0000.0037
-
- About 1930, Minnie Moodie, first curator at the University of Kansas's
art museum, donated this quilt to the Thayer Museum, as it was then known.
She called it Rose of Sharon, a metaphor from the King James Version
of the Bible.
-
- "I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys." (Solomon
2:1)
-
- The pattern relies on several design conventions typical of Germanic
folk arts. Cookie-cutter shaped roses bloom in triplicate, growing from
a vase here abstracted to a tiny triangle. The smaller flowers viewed in
profile might be buds, but are often seen as lilies or tulips.
-
- The red and green palette was a standard color scheme for quilts, also
popular in German traditional arts. Quilters were willing to pay extra
for Turkey-red cotton because it did not bleed or fade. However, the colorfast
dye was hard on the fibers. Use and washing over the years can cause it
to shred.
-
-
- 6
- Artist Unknown
- United States
- Flower Pot quilt, circa 1840-1870
- cotton, appliqué, quilting
- William Bridges Thayer Memorial, 1928.0907
-
- The unknown quiltmaker exercised a good deal of creativity within the
constraints of traditional folk art. Stylized florals sprout from a footed
urn in the typical red and green color scheme. Drooping tulips neatly fill
the square block format.
-
- Sallie Casey Thayer, whose eclectic collection was the original basis
for the Spencer Museum's archives, donated dozens of quilts to the University
of Kansas around 1915. This well-worn piece from the Thayer donation provided
inspiration for Doris Lux's new interpretation.
-
-
- 6a
- Doris Lux
- Meriden, Kansas
- cotton, appliqué, quilting
- Flower Pot, 2007
- Loaned by the artist
-
-
- 6b
- IN A BOX ON THE WALL
- Artist Unknown
- United States
- plate, 1867
- earthenware, slip
- William Bridges Thayer Memorial, 1928.3084
-
- A Pennsylvania-German artist decorated a redware plate with a stylized
floral about the same time the quilt was made.
-
-
- 7
- Artist Unknown
- United States
- Sagebud or Goose Tracks Variation quilt, circa 1840-1875
- cotton, piecing, appliqué, quilting
- William Bridges Thayer Memorial, 1928.0936
-
- This lively quilt features a geometric pieced design bordered with
an appliquéd floral vine on just two sides. Today's quiltmakers
speculate that seamstresses making such quilts planned to cover a bed pushed
up to the bedroom wall, saving time and stitches by sewing only what would
be displayed. Today's aesthetics frame quilts as art on the wall, so Gail
Stewart's recent interpretation features a symmetrical border.
-
- The border's floral images, possibly roses and tulips, can be traced
to many ancient cultures-Islamic, Indian and European. The border tulip
seen in profile is abstracted further into geometric shapes in the blocks.
Similar patterns are called Sagebud or Lily Pond. Others
see bird footprints in the block, and use names like Goose Tracks
and Duck Paddle.
-
-
- 7a
- Gail Stewart
- Overland Park, Kansas
- Goose Tracks , 2007
- cotton, piecing, appliqué, quilting
- Loaned by the artist
-
-
- 8 FULL DISPLAY
- Grandmother of Willis C. McEntarfer
- United States
- North Carolina Lily quilt, circa 1840-1860
- cotton, piecing, appliqué, quilting
- Gift of Willis C. McEntarfer, Hoyt, Kansas, 1973.0120
-
- The grandmother of the donor used the favorite fabrics of the mid-nineteenth
century quiltmaker to create a geometric design echoing the stylized triple
florals of traditional Germanic ornament and earlier Persian and Indian
imagery.
-
- Her block is known in today's quilt lexicon as North Carolina Lily,
a name that really doesn't reflect where the quilts were made. In 1929
Ruth Finley published a romantic if dubious story that cast the name in
print: The "lily in its migration from coast to coast acquired eight
different names, evidently bestowed in honor of the wild lilies native
to each region....It was called 'The North Carolina Lily', all through
the South except in Kentucky and Tennessee were it was known as 'The Mountain
Lily....."
-
- Finley's inspiration was a wildflower native to the southeastern woodlands.
The Carolina Lily (lilium michauxii) is a spotted orange flower
similar to what Kansans call tiger lilies.
-
- FOLDED + COPY
-
- 9
- Artist Unknown
- United States
- Star and Crescent quilt, circa 1840-1865
- cotton, piecing, appliqué, quilting
- William Bridges Thayer Memorial, 1928.0904
-
- Here we have a faded beauty, a once impressive masterpiece by an unknown
maker who used a floral vine border to frame pieced blocks in a design
published as Star and Crescent or Star of the West. Details
include a corded insert (piping) in the binding and around the patchwork
center, indicating a date of 1840 to 1865, when similar piping was a popular
feature in women's dresses, still stitched by hand.
-
- American quilters loved Turkey red for their quilts. The imported fabric
did not bleed from washing or fade from light, but abrasion easily wore
the surface. This quilt must have been used and washed often, resulting
in much fabric loss. Mid-century greens do not often fade, but a well-meaning
owner may have bleached the quilt.
-
-
- 9a
- Julie McEathron
- Lawrence, Kansas
- Star and Crescent, 2007
- cotton, piecing, appliqué, quilting
- Loaned by the artist
-
-
- 10 FULL DISPLAY
- Artist Unknown
- United States
- Check quilt, circa 1790-1825
- cotton, piecing, quilting
- William Bridges Thayer Memorial, 1928.0914
-
- Florals have long been the most popular imagery in printed cottons.
The two block-printed fabrics in this early quilt were fashionable for
clothing and furnishings. Naturalistic sprays and bouquets are arranged
in a style fabric historians call "floral trails," an arrangement
imitating nature. The blossoms, however, are rather fanciful abstractions
that may represent tulips, roses and carnations, Western ornament's standard
blooms.
-
- When Sallie Casey Thayer donated this quilt, one of the oldest in her
collection, she indicated that it had belonged to the family of founding
father Alexander Hamilton. It is definitely old enough to have graced a
bed in his home (Hamilton died after a duel with Aaron Burr in 1804) but
there is no other evidence of that association.
-
-
- 11 FULL DISPLAY
- "M.A.C."
- United States
- Four Patch quilt, circa 1820-1840
- cotton, piecing, quilting, embroidered initials
- William Bridges Thayer Memorial, 1928.0934
-
- The unknown quiltmaker embroidered her initials "M.A.C."
on the reverse of this quilt that reflects changes in printing technology.
About 1800 fabric manufacturers invented faster methods with one important
innovation being the roller or cylinder printing press. Roller prints gave
seamstresses more variety at lower costs. Fabric designers created pattern
with small repeats suitable for the roller and generated new ideas for
the mass market. Floral designs were plotted into regularly spaced grids
that designers call "foulards." Geometrics, particularly printed
plaids, became popular.
-
-
- 12 FULL DISPLAY
- Artist Unknown
- United States
- Hexagon quilt, circa 1825-1850
- cotton, piecing, quilting
- William Bridges Thayer Memorial, 1928.0926
-
- The earliest published quilt pattern yet found in America shows how
to make this design, called hexagon, six-sided and honey-comb patchwork
in an 1831 girls' magazine. Another early name was recorded in an 1856
novel describing "Job's troubles, that is to say, innumerable bits
of red, yellow and varicolored calico, cut in hexagonal form" In the
1930s the pattern was revived as Grandmother's Flower Garden.
-
- The unknown quiltmaker used an indigo blue calico to create consistent
"paths" in her garden. For the border she cut a green furnishing
print into strips. The chintz features flowers arranged in striped sets
between architectural columns hung with bouquets. These "pillar prints"
reflect American fascination with classical design in the early nineteenth
century.
-
-
- 13 FULL DISPLAY
- Catherine Grabill Landis
- United States
- Windmill quilt, circa 1880-1910
- cotton, piecing, quilting
- Gift of Misses Maude and May Landis, 1949.0016.01
-
- Industrialization in the fabric mills eventually caused a design standardization
reflected in the calicoes here, simple prints only suggesting florals.
Catherine Landis seems to have been more interested in creating effects
in color and patchwork than in showing off a variety of fabrics. Her bold
coloring makes it difficult to analyze the patchwork pattern, a simple
pinwheel block of dark and light triangles paced on point.
-
- Her relatives, sisters Maude and May Landis, donated this quilt and
much more to the University of Kansas. Their names live on through scholarships
in nursing and mathematics.
-
-
- 14
- Olive Batchelor Wells
- 1822-1893, United States, Ohio
- Garden of Eden quilt, circa 1856
- cotton, wool, linen, appliqué, embroidered, beaded, stump work,
quilting
- Gift of Mr. & Mrs. C. Wells Haren, 1978.0071
-
- Olive Batchelor Wells created a unique masterpiece telling the Biblical
tale of Adam and Eve's expulsion from paradise. Among the embroidered inscriptions
is a hand pointing to the title "The Garden of Eden." She labeled
the three-dimensional central flower "Plant of Renown," a reference
to a line from the Biblical Book of Ezekiel: "And I will raise up
for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger
in the land"
-
- The flower might be viewed as a promise of an abundant harvest, but
Wells likely saw symbolism described in this early-nineteenth-century sermon:
-
- "Christ gets a great many metaphorical names and descriptions
in scripture; sometimes he is called a Rose, sometimes he is called a Sun,
and sometimes he is called a Door, sometimes he is called the Tree of lifehere
he is called a Plant, and a renowned Plant"
-
- The Plant of Renown and the rose image offer the Old Testament hope
of a future Redeemer.
-
- Wells used a variety of needlework techniques. Particularly unusual
are Adam and Eve in an old-fashioned embroidery style called stump work
in which three-dimensional figures are attached to the surface. Many of
her flowers were gathered in another three-dimensional technique called
ruching.
-
- Extraordinary as this piece is, quilt historians found one similar
in an Ohio museum. A neighbor in Painesville, Ohio, used the same lettering,
fabrics and techniques to create a patriotic quilt. Both were shown at
the 1856 Lake County Fair, attracting notice from the local newspaper.
"There was among numerous other beautiful ones, a Worked Quilt representing
the Garden of Eden, in which were Adam and Eve, the tree of forbidden fruit,
&, &, which attracted much attention."
-
- -- The Whole Works of the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine (Philadelphia: William
S. & A. Young, 1836) pg 340-341
- -- Ricky Clark, George W. Knepper and Ellice Ronsheim, Quilts in
Community: Ohio's Traditions (Nashville: Rutledge Hill Press, 1991)
Page 140-143.
-
-
- SLANT BOARD
-
- 15 Artist Unknown
- England
- Pictorial quilt, circa 1790-1810
- cotton, linen, silk, wool, raffia, paper, piecing, appliqué,
stump work, embroidering, ink
- Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Harold D. Hedges in memory of Mr. & Mrs.
R. Lockard, 1980.0019
-
- This early English quilt is quite unusual in its depictions of small
scenes from everyday life. Each character in the center and border is portrayed
in a type of three-dimensional stump work known as a "dressed picture,"
figures cut from paper and clad in fabric. Over the past two hundred years
the paper bodies and silk faces have deteriorated, but embroidered and
tucked details of their costume remain. Note the wool uniforms of the "redcoat"
soldiers fighting in the Napoleonic wars.
-
- Quilt historian Nancy Hornback writes: "Some of the scenes, viewed
in sequence, seem to tell a story: a woman and a man meet; he proposes;
he goes off on a ship; they marry, she gets news of peace; he rides home;
she presents him with twins." She interprets the center area, the
oval medallion, as a wedding party. The churchyard is framed by a pair
of classical columns hung with floral vines, much like the pillar prints
of the era. She has identified several possible makers in the donor's family
of vicars, farmers, and military men who lived in Yorkshire in England's
north.
-
- The patchwork coverlet, like many early English quilts, was never meant
to be quilted. Before the piece came to the Spencer collection the donor's
aunt, worried about deteriorating fabrics, attached a bedsheet backing
and brought the edges over the front for support.
-
-
- 16 FULL DISPLAY
- Artist Unknown
- United States
- Four Block Tulip quilt, 1840-1900
- cotton, appliqué, quilting
- Gift of Edith Benson, Lawrence, 1970.0206