Patchwork diamond pattern; large motifs worked with printed cottons in red, blues, pink, browns, (all floral); green check. Enclosed by squares and diamonds of white cotton and dimity; edged in pink tape printed with geometric pattern; backed with white cotton.
quilts
calico
cotton (textile)
dimity
stitching
quilting
resist dyeing
Quilt
In exhibit at National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution: "Within These Walls" from May 2001- July 2001.
"Cherished Possesions": The January 2, 1837, issue of The Liberator, Boston's abolitionist newspaper, described articles that had been for sale at a recent Anti-Slavery Fair. Included was a description of this quilt, made of patchwork in small stars and a transcription of the poem in its center. The Anti-Slavery Fair, held in December 1836, was the third annual fair organized by the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, a group founded early in the 1830s to fight for immediate emancipation. Among many of this group's activities was the organization of annual Anti-Slavery Fairs. The fairs were intended to raise awareness of the abolitionists' cause, but they also became astonishingly successful fund-raisers.
Hand inked: Mother! when around your child/You clasp your arms in love,/And when with grateful joy you raise/Your eyes to God above,-/Think of the negro mother,when/Her child is torn away,/Sold for a little slave-oh then/For that poor mother pray!
Evening Star
Probably Child, Lydia Maria, 1802-1880
36 1/4 (W) (inches)
Gift of Mrs. Edward M. Harris
1923.597
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