Methodology and Meaning: Strategies for Quilt Study

Methodology and Meaning:
Strategies for Quilt Study
by Patricia J. Keller
As quilt scholars expand their understanding of the field,
identifying mythologies surrounding quilts and quiltmaking
and scrutinizing methods now applied to quilt study, they will
increasingly seek information and methodologies developed
within other areas of humanistic research. Additionally, the
richness of quilts as a source of cultural information will continue to draw scholars from related academic disciplines to
quilt research, and they will bring methodologies now littleemployed in quilt study with them. One well-suited to this study,
and certain to be more applied, is the interdisciplinary approach of material culture studies, which employs analytical
models drawn from a variety of academic perspectives to gain
insight into the products of human workmanship. In this article
Patricia Keller, a material culture scholar, discusses such an
approach and its implications for the field. This methodology
was employed in the development of The Lancaster Quilt Harvest, a regional Pennsylvania quilt documentation project directed by Ms. Keller and sponsored by the Heritage Center Museum of Lancaster County. In an upcoming issue of The Quilt
Journal she will discuss the application of this theoretical model
to the Lancaster project, and its preliminary results.
—Editors' Note
In the explanatory Mission Statement heralding its late-1992
premier issue, The Quilt Journal observed that late 20th century
"quilt scholarship in all areas, domestic and international, is in
its infancy"1 and called for an interdisciplinary approach to
future quilt study within the context of an international scholarly
community. The commentary observed that "the number of
professionally trained scholars working in the field is very
small," crediting this shortage in part to the "... ferment,
controversy, (and) freshness" of the contemporary quilt field,
which, The Quilt Journal added, "... has kept from joining it
people trained in art history, museology and aesthetics, who...
as scholars in the decorative arts... would bring to it a needed
perspective and professionalism."' Rather than avoiding intellectual ferment, controversy, and freshness, academically trained
scholars in America have more probably failed to embrace quilt
study for more pertinent reasons. This article discusses some
of the factors contributing to the relative scarcity of American
academicians currently involved with emerging quilt scholarship and offers a cross-functional analytical model quilt scholars may wish to consider for future studies.
Utilizing Leslie A. White's three main subdivisions of human
culture — material, social and mental — it can he argued that
material culture as a field of humanistic study has received less
systematic attention than the other two divisions of culture. 3 A
relative latecomer among analytic methodologies, artifact study
has only recently been incorporated on a limited basis by a
growing number of cultural historians. Speaking for the field,
educator Thomas Schlereth recounted the particular benefits
brought by application of material culture study to historic
reconstruction:
Material culture data provides us with one abundant
source for gaining historical insight into the lives of those
who left no other record... perhaps the historian's best
approach to "anonymous
history." Such a cultural
history. .. is particularly
attentive to the historical
experiences of Americans
who were nonliterate, or
literate but who did not
leave behind any writing,
or, for various reasons, who
have not figured promicontinued on page 2
Methodology and Meaning: Strategies for Quilt Study
continued from page 1
nently in traditional political or economic narratives written by historians.'
Certainly cultural hegemony based upon gender inequality
accounts for the poverty of period documentation concerning the
substance of women's lives in America during centuries past. It must
also be factored among the reasons the feminine experience in
America has not figured prominently in traditional historical
narratives, non-traditional material culture studies
notwithstanding. Because gender is a "fundamental organizing
category of experience"' and because the male perspective has
dominated academic fields, shaping both paradigms and
methods, the emerging study of women's material culture from
a feminist perspective promises to "deconstruct predominantly
male cultural paradigms" 6 and reconstruct models attentive to
women's presence and agency in the American past.
Other political issues have played a causal role in the general
scarcity of academically disciplined scholars focusing upon
American quilts and quiltmaking traditions. Aesthetically and
historically, the products of women's handcraft have been
subjected to a peculiar political "double-whammy" which has
stigmatized this class of artifact and those who study (and
create) them.' Products of a collaborative and traditional women's
craft, customarily intended for an audience of intimates, quilts
continue to be categorized as artistically and culturally inferior
to the virtuosic, innovative and public creative works which
comprise the male-dominated fine and decorative arts. Only
since the 1970s have American quilts achieved a measure of
aesthetic appreciation among museum curators and art historians, following the landmark 1971 Whitney installation, "Abstract Design in American Quilts." 8 Nevertheless, then and now
the celebrity of American historic quilts has been gained and
promoted through the visual filters and critical judgments of
20th century modernists, whose restricted ideas about these
textiles point to an imposed aesthetic more revealing of our
own time and cultural values than those of the makers'.
And as if the conventions of art history weren't daunting
enough, the conceptual deficiencies of even the most recent
American quilt scholarship confront the trained academician
approaching quilt study with additional deterrents — however
willing s/he may be to risk professional and intellectual
association with the products of women's craft. While
contemporary quilt scholars have made significant strides in
gathering quantifiable data concerning quilts and quiltmaking
in the American past, the mere gathering and publication of
quantitative masses of information about artifacts does not
constitute interpretive study.' The central weakness of
contemporary quilt scholarship lies in its failure to analyze the
subject material rigorously, to place the material in its social,
historical, cultural, and theoretical contexts, and to subject the
data to analysis within one or more conceptual frameworks.
With some important exceptions, contemporary American
quilt study seems to be mired in what material culture scholar
The Quilt Journal
E. McClung Fleming has termed the "operation of identification," the first of four fundamental steps necessary to assure
comprehensive analysis of artifacts. 10 Students of the product
and process of quiltmaking need to move beyond this
information level of quilt study to the conceptual level leading
to cultural analysis and interpretation of meaning. All too
frequently contemporary quilt studies offer repetitive physical
descriptions and incomplete analyses of objects and events,
often coupled with cursory biographical information about
the quiltmaker or recipient. Typically, neither the description,
incomplete analyses, nor the biography, though faithfully noted
and recorded, are coherently related through any conceptual
framework to the larger context of cultural system and process,
leaving questions of significance and meaning unexplored.
While detailed physical description, biography, and analysis of
individual artifacts and events are components of a
comprehensive approach to material culture study, they will
actually better serve as the fundamental building blocks upon
which more advanced — and meaningful — cultural analysis
and interpretation will be based.
Contemporary American quilt scholars attempting to penetrate
the "glass ceiling" separating description from understanding
are hindered by a field-wide scarcity of formal academic training
in applicable interpretive and analytical methodologies. Quilt
historian Jonathan Holstein has categorized many of the leading
researchers and scholars currently working in quilt studies as
"amateurs," a term he employs to describe persons who do not
enjoy the benefits of scholarly training, many of whom do not
"live by their scholarship.""
An interrelated and more insidious factor limiting the scope
and depth of American contemporary quilt analysis and
interpretation may be traced to unintentional bias resulting
from individual and collective problems of objectivity. Holstein
has noted that in addition to their amateur academic status, the
statistical majority of contemporary quilt scholars is female.12
The reluctance or failure of these amateur female scholars to
advance quilt scholarship to new levels of conceptual
understanding may be a protective, adaptive strategy designed
to limit self-awareness and thereby maintain the alignment of
individual belief and value systems with those of American
society in general. Self-awareness frequently leads to growth
and change: both are disruptive and painful processes whether
experienced on an individual or societal level. In their enduring
celebration of quilts' familiar and comfortable relationships with
the cultures of matriarchy and domesticity, contemporary quilt
scholars often perpetuate an unbalanced cultural mythology
which not surprisingly affirms its proponents' personal values
and life choices while validating and conforming to the traditional
framework provided by the dominant patriarchal social order.
By protecting and upholding the cultural status quo through
strategic omission, contemporary quilt scholars remain blinded
to potentially disturbing historical and political interpretations
Page 2 Volume 2, Number 1 1993
of the social processes and functions associated with — perhaps surrounding — quilts and quiltmaking.
Material culture study attempts to explain the complex
network of interrelated meanings embodied within objects,
including "why things were made, why they took the forms
they did, and what social, functional, aesthetic or symbolic
needs they serve..." 13 Since meaning is socially and culturally
determined, artifacts must be studied within the framework
of culture and society. A thoroughly integrated view of the
diverse aspects of American culture contributing to the
evolution of artifact form and multilayered functions is best
gained through an interdisciplinary, or cross-functional,
curriculum joining the synchronic methodology (what else
was happening in the culture at this time) of the social scientist
with the diachronic methodology (what was happening in this
culture across time periods) of the art historian. Such a holistic
approach for the study of quilts and quiltmaking will seek out
the "intersecting lines of thought"" shared among the fields of
social history, cultural history, women's studies, folklore, literature,
sociology, psychology, economics, philosophy, theology, art
history, anthropology, proxemics, and the histories of business,
industry and technology. By developing, adopting or adapting
models of artifact analysis from related academic disciplines,
quilt scholars will have the means to approach and analyze
these rich primary documents and develop a theoretical
understanding of the ways in which quilts — and the human
behaviors associated with them — explicitly implement, express
and document continuity and change within a particular cultural
system, a "mind," a way of life.''
Applying principles of interdisciplinary study to Fleming's
second operation of evaluation' s suggests that responsible
scholars must learn to evaluate quilts not by late-20th century
criteria of aesthetics and workmanship, but as artifacts functioning
within the value systems of their contemporary culture. Quilt
historians must work to discover the criteria by which the
community of known contemporaries judged a performer
(quiltmaker) and a performance (a quilt), and must assess the
confluence of community and individual. By seeking out what
traditions the community shared and how far the individual was
allowed to go in introducing new features or items of
performance, quilt scholars can illuminate both the shaping role
of the cultural system and the nature and extent to which
individual creativity functioned therein.17
Students of quilts and quiltmaking can carry their projects
"beyond description to explanation" by "the explication of
those critical links that exist between human behavior and its
material products." 18 Fleming describes "two reciprocal methods"
useful for discovering the intersections of an artifact with its
culture: product analysis and content analysis. 19 Both equally
involve probing and exposing the interrelationship of artifacts
and culture either through extracting evidence from the artifact
about the culture or developing an explanation of how the
shaping influence of the culture made the artifact what it is.20
Both analytical tools are important components of cultural
The Quilt Journal
analysis, Fleming's third operative stage, which has as its
purpose the identification of characteristics common to a
group of objects that enable the researcher to make general
inferences about the society that produced, used and retained
the material. As if anticipating the mass quilt documentation
efforts of recent years, Fleming identified "sampling operations"
involving a body of related artifacts as one valuable form of
cultural analysis which can yield significant conceptual
generalizations through statistical groupings.21
Interpretation, considered by Fleming to be the "crown"
of his analytical model, teases out the relations of the artifact
to our culture, relying upon artifact identification and
evaluation, as well as cultural analysis of both past and
contemporary life to do so. "More specifically," writes Fleming,
"interpretation focuses on the relation between some fact
learned about the artifact and some key aspect of our current
value system, and this relation must be sufficiently intense or
rich to have self-evident meaning, significance or relevance...
Interpretation will vary as the personal, class, ideological, and
"22
national interests of interpreters and their audiences vary.
Analysis of interpretive themes developed from any particular
object or class of artifacts (the interpretation of interpretation)
can provide insight into the particular values held by the
interpreting audience. Tell me what this means to you, says the
material culture scholar, and I'll tell you who you are.
When done well, interpretation metaphorically holds an
unclouded mirror before the viewing culture's social countenance
for due reflection and contemplation, enlightening people about
themselves. Through systematic and rigorous application of
analytical methodologies, quilt scholars can contribute
meaningfully to a new, holistically balanced interpretation of
women's lives and Western society, past and present. It is time
to move beyond mass documentation efforts and "quilts with
stories" anthologies to more comprehensive historical
reconstruction and to write the histories that scholar Virginia
Gunn has heralded as "the fourth era of quilt scholarship."23
Patricia Keller received her material culture training in the
Winterthur Program in Early American Culture. Through that
program she received an M. A. in 1984 from the University of
Delaware. Her research has been particularly directed toward
Pennsylvania German material culture with special emphasis
on paint-decorated furniture and quilted textiles, and she has
written and lectured frequently on these and other decorative
arts topics. As Director/Curator of The Heritage Center of
Lancaster County from 1984-1993, she organized numerous
original exhibitions interpreting regional decorative arts. She
served as director of The Lancaster County Quilt Harvest, a
regional quilt documentation project sponsored by the Heritage
Center, and continues as a volunteer curatorial research associate for that project. Currently an independent scholar, Patricia
has received an E. Lyman Stewart Fellowship and will begin
Page 3 Volume 2, Number 1 1993
continued on page 4
Methodology and Meaning: Strategies for Quilt Study
continued from page 3
doctoral studies in American Civilization within the History
Department of the University of Delaware in the fall of 1993.
The Quilt Journal
Page 4 Volume 2, Number 1 1993
INTERNATIONAL
The "Hand Quilting" of Marseille
by Janine Janniere
In textile literature, the term "Marseille" refers both to a commercial,
loom-woven white bedspread of the 19th century (usually called
in the United States a "Marseilles" spread) and several types of quiltrelated needlework done in the Marseille area for some centuries.
The latter are sometimes collectively called "Marseilles hand quilting." This article will discuss the latter.
More has been written in English than in French on Marseille
quilted bedcovers; but even in Anglo-American quilt literature, there
are few studies on those textiles which have been called "Marseilles"
for several centuries. There has been more published, for instance,
on quilted petticoats and clothing as a part of costume study in
France as well as England and America.
The well-known English authority, Averil Colby, makes two
mentions of the word "Marseilles" (pp. 149 and 150 of her book,
Quilting) referring to the woven type of spreads. In her chapters
on corded and stuffed work and on quilting of the 16th, 17th, and
18th centuries, she illustrates a number of garments and bedcovers
showing cord-quilting but never mentions Marseille or Provence. As
an example of European 16th century work, she illustrates a linen
quilt of German origin.1
Patsy and Myron Orlofsky, after writing a few words about loommade "Marseilles" spreads, admit that "there is no real evidence as
to the derivation of the name Marseilles. One authority on needlework
has expressed the theory that it was first hand-stitched quilting,
produced by the yard in the South of France and then exported to
other parts of Europe and England."' Neither Colby nor the Orlofskys
mention Marseille quilting under the categories of cord or stuffed work.
In 1977 Susan Swan wrote: "the term Marseilles quilting was
actually a misnomer, since by definition quilting binds together
three layers of fabric, and in this technique, only two are joined, with
artistically shaped areas of filling between them. The finished
product resembled those done with the techniques that are known
today as stuffed work and corded work."3
In 1978, in the "Bulletin de Liaison du Centre International
d'Etude des Textiles Anciens," Mildred Lanier puts 18th and 19th
century Marseille quilting in three categories: 4 The "first generation"
is hand-quilted work, the second and third are hand-loom and
machine-woven textiles. The earliest reference she found, probably
in an English or American source (we do not know whether she
searched for written evidence in France), is in a letter from Henry
Purefoy to Anthony Baxter in London, dated August 5, 1739. After
having ordered "a neat white quilted petticoat" the month before,
he wrote, "I have returned the Marseilles Quilt petticoat... It is so
heavy my mother cannot wearing (sic) it." But unfortunately the
references do not give us any idea of the actual stitching technique
used. She assumes it could be what "is now called Italian or cord
quilting" and also quotes a Virginia plantation journal listing in 1756
The Quilt Journal
"40 yards of French quilting 2/6." 5 She admits that she and her
colleagues have researched this subject "without reaching any
definite conclusions as to how or why these fabrics may have
received the name Marseilles" In 1980, recognizing the need for a
classification of what is called "white work," Jean Taylor Federico,
curator of the D.A.R. Museum, stated that Marseille quilting is one
of the three categories of this type of work (the other two being
candlewicking and embroidery) 6 and could be called "corded" or
"stuffed work," but not "trapunto," which is a 20th century term. She
agreed with Susan Swan's analysis that it was not really quilting
since only two layers of fabric were employed. Mildred Lanier
wrote, however, that the first generation of Marseille quilts had a
wadding of wool fleece, later replaced by cotton. Were these
authors talking about the same country and time period?
In 1982 the American Quilt Study Group published an article by
Sally Garoutte which went beyond a description of Marseille quilts
to include some information on the "Provencal" cultural context.'
She does not mention batting but does discuss the corded and
stuffed techniques and the "boutis," the name given in Provence to
the special instrument used to insert the cord in cording. Garoutte
mentioned that the folk art museum in Arles has three 17th century
Provencal covers displaying these techniques and seemed to infer
that these were made all over Provence and were called "Marseilles
Quilts" in England because of their place of purchase. None of the
writing mentioned thus far analyzed the quilting stitch used in these
types of work.8
In 1984, Tandy Hersh wrote a well-researched article on 18th
century quilted silk petticoats.' She listed four different stitching
techniques used in quilted petticoats: running stitch, cord-quilted,
stuffed work and what she calls the "variant" stitch (a variation of
the back stitch). To illustrate the latter, there is a photograph of the
piece described by Mildred Lanier as "the epitome of first generation
Marseilles": it is a yellow silk petticoat, in the collection of the
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, with the signature "Abigail
Trowbridge 1750." Interestingly enough, the stitch technique used
on it is called "American type" by Ann Pollard Rowel0 (it apparently
was not used in England) and "variant" by Tandy Hersh.
At this point, we must ask the question, can we really differentiate
Marseille quilting from the French, cord, stuffed, variant or American
type, or do all these terms describe the same technique?
Let us turn to French writing on the subject. In fact, there is little
in the literature, surprising when one considers that quilting in
Provence was a widespread tradition for a number of centuries. To
my knowledge, only three French authors have dealt with Marseille
quilting, mostly in periodicals or catalogues, and no book dedicated
entirely to it exists." Among these authors, Marie Jose EymarBeaumelle seems to have done most research on the topic. She is
the owner of an antique gallery in Marseille, a collector of Marseille
Page 5 Volume 2, Number 1 1993
continued on page 6
The "Hand Quilting" of Marseille
continued from page 5
quilting, a member of the C.I.E.T.A. and previously worked for the
Musee du Vieux Marseille. Before I summarize her work, I think
we need to briefly describe the historical background of Marseille
and its area, which might help us understand better the development of the quilting tradition there. When we talk of Provence
today, we mean a historical and cultural area in Southeastern
France, spreading east of the Rhone River to the border of Italy.
The main city of the region is Marseille. 12 Since its foundation
by the Greeks in 7th century B.C., Marseille has been a dynamic
and prestigious cultural and economic center, located in a
strategic site for the development of international trade. The
area became a "Provincia Romana" in Gaul in the 2nd century
B.C., and the people of Marseille were rewarded for their help
to the Romans by obtaining fiscal immunity.
Provence itself was an autonomous region which became part
of the Kingdom of France only in 1481. 13 Before that, it was run by
several Counts and especially by the Dynasty of Anjou from 1246
to 1480: the first Count, Charles I d'Anjou and the last, Rene
d'Anjou had both the title of "Count of Provence and King of Sicily."
One of the earliest records of quilting in France was found in the
accounts of the French King Louis IX in 1234 14 (who happened to
be the brother of Charles P" d'Anjou). So if quilting was introduced
to Provence and France via Italy, these close contacts might have
been a conduit.
The Counts of Provence had granted the region certain institutions,
privileges, rights and exemptions; and when the last Count bequeathed
it to the King of France, Louis XI, in 1481, he urged him to maintain
and protect these specific rights and status, which the King did.
Marseille, never a docile city, fought always to keep its autonomy.
It was a thriving economic capital and created the first Chamber of
Commerce in France; it had established an intense trade with the
"Levant" (mostly the eastern coast of the Mediterranean), Venice,
Spain and North Africa and attracted many immigrants and merchants.
Because of its trade with the ports of the Levant (particularly Alep),
Marseille and Provence were the first in France to import Indian
cottons, beginning in the 16th century. In two estate inventories
from Marseille dated 1577 and 1580 are found the earliest known
written references in France to the use of Indian cotton, actually for
bed quilts.'' While Portuguese traders are credited with being the
first Europeans to discover Indian toiles (in the early 16th century),
Paul Schwartz, an authority from Mulhouse, thinks that France was
probably the first country in Europe to copy the Indian technique
of cotton printing, as illustrated by a contract signed in Marseille in
1648. 16 Most reading this will know the story of the popularity of
those "Indiennes" in Europe in the 17th century, which led to
government prohibitions to protect the national manufacturers of
silk, wool and linen. In France, the first act was pa ssed in 1686 and
the prohibition went on until 1759. The act forbade not only the
importation of Indian cottons and the manufacture of printed
cottons in the country, but even the wearing or other use of them.
Several French scholars have discussed this extraordinary period in
France, in accounts which sometimes sound like adventure stories.''
In those 73 years, two Edicts and 80 Decrees were made in an
attempt to enforce this prohibition. The most repressive law threatened
those who smuggled these fabrics into France with death, or life in
the galleys. These laws were to be applied in the whole Kingdom,
Provence included. But what about Marseille?
Colbert, Minister of Louis XIV, who had done much for the
development of commerce, stimulated the growth of national
manufacturers and created the French East India Company. He
supported Marseille and re-established it as a free port in 1669 (after
Louis XIV had tried to discipline the city and reduce its privileges).
Now, as a free port, Marseille wanted to be exempted from the
prohibitions and be considered a "foreign city." 18 Its argument was
that the lack of open commerce would ruin trade with foreign
countries and the Levant as well as destroy local industries, which
supported many families. Some records of those years give precise
and important information for quilt scholars: one said that quilting
on white cotton for the making of bed quilts, skirts and clothing was
quite an important professional activity in Marseille, giving work to
about 2,000 people. 19 Another states that before the prohibition,
Marseille produced 40,000 to 50,000 wadded quilts ("vannes") a
year; but two years after the beginning of the prohibition, this had
been reduced to a third of that quantity. 20 In view of this and the
strong protests of the people of Marseille, it was eventually decided
that Marseille could import and use only white toiles from the
Levant, which could then be introduced into the rest of the
Kingdom only after having been quilted and made into bedcovers,
caps, and other works done in that city. The white toiles could be
sold abroad before or after having been printed or made into quilted
objects. But other fabrics, such as silks, printed cottons, painted
toiles from the Levant, India and China could only enter Marseille
and wait in transit before being exported. The "Marseillais" could
not wear or use the latter fabrics, and their introduction into the rest
of the Kingdom was strictly prohibited. 21 Since white toiles were
allowed only in Marseille, one would think it would have stimulated
local quilted white work and its export abroad. If this decree was
respected, we can assume that all the French white cotton quilts
imported by England between 1691 and 1759 were named "Marseilles"
not only because of their place of purchase, but because they could
only be made in Marseille. The rest of the Kingdom, including
Provence, was not allowed to produce and sell them. Even if they
were made all over Provence after the prohibition, in the second
half of the 18th century and in the 19th, it is logical they would have
kept abroad (and in France) the name they had for at least 68 years.
Marie JoseEymar-Beaumelle states that we should divide Marseille
handquilting into three categories:
The most prestigious is what is called "toiles piquees" or "picqures
de Marseille" in French (the actual terms found in 17th and 18th
century records). 22 The oldest known surviving examples seem to
date from the end of the 17th century. They were luxury items,
probably made by local professional upholsterers until the decline
of this trade in the second half of the 18th century. They were very
elaborate and time-consuming and were considered the most highly
praised gifts that the city of Marseille could offer its guests of honor.23
They were sold to the wealthy in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy,
Holland, England and Germany. They were made with fine "lisats"24
for the top fabric and a loosely-woven fabric for the back. This
confirms what we have read in many quilt history books. As for the
stitching technique, Ms. Beaumelle specified it was not a regular
backstitch ("point arriere" in French) but a "point de piqure ," the
most time consuming of all.25 We can read in a late 19th century
French encyclopedia of needlework that when the "point de
piqure" left some space between the stitches on the front, it was
called "point de sable." 26 Is it possible this is the "variant" stitch
described by Tandy Hersh?
The "point de piqure" was used to form the tunnel into which
the fine cord was inserted. Sometimes the rest of the work was
entirely covered with embroidery stitches, and several stitching
techniques could be combined on a single piece. What about the
"boutis'? Ms. Beaumelle did not find the term in any 18th century
archives. The original word was "Broderie emboutie" in the old
encyclopedias and was also called "Broderie de Marseille" in a book
written by Charles-Germain de Saint Aubin (son of the King's
embroiderer), L'Art du Brodeur, in 1770. 27 It was a descendant of
the "piqures de Marseille," a simplified version which appeared in
the second half of the 18th century. It could be done as a home
craft and gave serious competition to the declining professional
"piqures de Marseille." There were still two layers of fabric, the
tunnel was made with running stitches, the "meche" was thicker
and stuffed work was used to create high-relief and set off the
decorative patterns. Petticoats, quilts and baby clothes worked in
this technique were made by women all over Provence in the 19th
century. The work gradually lost its fine quality. Even though Paris
abandoned the fashion of quilted clothing towards the end of the
18th century, quilted work and "broderie emboutie" continued to
be made and used in Provence for local costume, especially skirts,
almost until the beginning of the 20th century. 28 We have a literary
reference to this continuing tradition in "Calendal" written by
Provencal poet Frederic Mistral in 18672 9 Fishermen's wives of the
port of Cassis are described sitting and waiting in the shade for their
husbands, and making the white "boutis" (the technique was thus
eventually named and gave its name to the final product in the
common language). Provencal women would either make this type
of work for their own use and special occasions or to sell to the
upper classes and thus make extra money. This white work was
popular among the women: it was strong, could withstand boiling
temperatures when laundered, and did not need to be ironed.
The third kind of handquilting is actually the oldest and the most
common: it is for the making of "couvertures piquees" or "matelassees"
(wadded quilts) with simple quilting patterns made with running
stitches, most often in straight lines forming checked or lozenged
patterns in the center of the quilt. The quilting of the border was
sometimes a bit more elaborate. When "indiennes" and printed
continued on page 8
cottons could be used for the top,30 these became the traditional
Provencal bed-covers and continued to be made into the 20th
century. They are still found in old Provencal homes and in
antique shops and are at times now misnamed "boutis". The
actual "boutis" work is much harder to find and the "piqures
de Marseille" naturally even harder.
Janine Janniere is currently teaching English at the
National Institute of Applied Sciences in Toulouse, France.
Her previous position was at Paris X University. She holds a
B. A. in American Studies from Paris VIII University. After
receiving the 1975 Scholarship Award from the American
Women's Group in Paris (a FAWCO Foundation-affiliated
group), she enrolled in a Master's program in Education at the
University of Connecticut, in Storrs, and obtained her Master's
degree in 1977. She discovered the American quiltmaking
tradition during her years in rural New England and has
concentrated on it ever since. She has done further research
on the subject within a Ph.D. program in American Studies at
Paris VIII University. After obtaining a research grant from
the Fulbright Commission in 1984-85, she toured the United
States for several months doing field work and was also a
Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Appalachian Affairs of East
Tennessee University. She has been lecturing in France on this
subject for a number of years.
While a number of questions technical and historical about
"Marseilles hand quilting" remain, we can answer at least one.
In the first half of the 18th century two kinds of quilted cotton
products could have reached England from Marseille, the
professionally made "piqures de Marseille" and wadded quilts.
The most significant unanswered questions are, in my opinion,
these: If the assumption of an Italian origin or influence for
the technique is correct (from the well-known 14th century
Sicilian work displaying similar corded and stuffed
techniques31 ), when and how did it develop in France? How
could Marseille have been the only city making "toiles piquees"
before the time of the Prohibition? Did they begin to be
named "piqures de Marseille" (in France and abroad) only
after 1686, because they could not be made anywhere else?
(And what was the difference between that term and "French
quilting?") It does seem logical that an activity which developed
in a given place for 68 years would continue to bear the name
of its location. The first records we have of the name "Marseille"
in relation to quilting, both in England and France, coincide
with the time of the Prohibition. But what happened before
that? And what about the rest of Europe? There seem to have
been examples of very similar techniques in Portugal and
northern Europe, even as early as the 16th century. Why
among those, was Marseille cord-quilting especially favored
in England?
The contribution of historians, specialists of the 16th and
17th centuries, a comparative study of the professional trades
and manufacturers of other major cities in France and Europe,
a comparative analysis of several surviving pieces, and the
study of a larger number of estate inventories might give us
a better idea about the specifics of Marseille handquilting.
The Quilt Journal
Page 8 Volume 2, Number 1 1993
The Quilt Journal
Page 9 Volume 2, Number 1 1993
Review
Her Life in Quilts:
A Review of Quilters' Biographies
by Laurel Horton
Laurel Horton notes in the beginning of her article below a
search for identities in quilt research, a desire to tie quilts to
personalities, to their makers. This interest has resulted in a
number of one-woman exhibitions and in books, such as are
discussed by Ms. Horton, featuring the life and quilts of
individual quiltmakers. Some impetus for this approach has
come from a perceived depersonalization of quilts through
exhibitions and books which stress their aesthetics and include
their "social" histories only as a part of their provenances.
Implicit in the urge to show the maker with her quilts is a desire
to maintain or re-establish a connection between artifact and
creator and to keep quilt scholarship and public presentation
from passing into what are seen as the drier hands of the
academic or museum establishments. Additionally, we have
seen during this era a growing interest in the less heroic or
outsized events and people in the historical record, the daily
rounds of lives in a culture, the common, recurring happenings
which describe existence for most of us. The creators of the
quilts which have survived, where they can be discovered, have
become as important for some as the objects created. Ironically,
this is in part a result of the intense study of quilt aesthetics,
which focuses attention on the objects rather than the creators,
but by implication, because of the inclusion of their work in
aesthetics-oriented exhibitions in "art" museums and "art"-style
picture books, identifies the makers as "artists." This gives
legitimacy to a study of their lives in the context of their creative
endeavors, the same sort of artists' biographies written endlessly
about creators of painting and sculpture. Because the writing
and publishing of such books answers a number of emotional
and scholarly agendas in the quilt world, we are bound to see
many more of them. Laurel Horton here looks at a number of
such one-person accounts and their implications for our
understanding of quilt history.
—Editors' Note
One of the many directions explored by quilt scholars of the last
decade has been the documentation of the lives of individual
quiltmakers. Balanced and supported by quilt studies on a larger
scale, quilters' biographies contribute important case histories which
give the past a human face and help us remember that quilts did
not spring, full grown, from museum walls.
Women's studies scholars frequently lament the comparative
lack of historical documents which depict the lives of women,
especially documents written by women about themselves. The
rarity of women's diaries, letters, and memoirs makes each such
discovery and its content all the more precious.
Legacy: The Story of Talula Bottoms and Her Quilts (Nashville:
The Quilt Journal
Rutledge Hill, 1988) and Pioneer Quiltmaker: The Story of
Dorinda Moody Slade 1808-1895 (Tucson: Sanpete Publications,
1990) detail the lives of exceptional and prolific 19th century
quiltmakers. At the same time, they demonstrate both the
possibilities and the complexities of compiling such works.
Nancilu Burdick, the author of Legacy, researched the life
and quilts of her grandmother, who lived from 1862 to 1946.
Burdick began to discover the scope of Talula Bottoms'
quiltmaking output while sorting inherited family papers in
1980. In addition to letters, old photographs, and an incomplete
novel, the papers included a handwritten memoir by Talula
Bottoms in 1943. That discovery led Burdick on a quest to
locate some of the quilts, perhaps as many as 200, made by her
grandmother and now owned by descendants in many states,
and to begin the process of "getting to know" her grandmother.
Quilt researchers Bets Ramsey and Sally Garoutte encouraged
Burdick to present an early version of Talula Bottoms' life at
the American Quilt Study Group Seminar in 1984. That paper,
published in Uncoverings 1984, led to the publication of Legacy
and introduced Talula Bottoms to an audience beyond her
descendants.
Carolyn O'Bagy Davis traces her interest in Dorinda Moody
Slade to a brief biographical caption in a 1984 quilt exhibition
catalog. Davis, not related to the quiltmaker, began a project to
locate and organize information about the life and quilts of this
remarkable woman. Although Dorinda Slade left no writing in
her own hand, a granddaughter had compiled material on her
life; and that provided important data. Davis' research was
helped by the conversion of Dorinda Moody Slade and her
family to the Mormon faith, as the Church of Latter Day Saints
fosters the preservation of genealogical materials.
Both Legacy and Pioneer Quiltmaker demonstrate what a
combination of persistent research and luck can accomplish.
The majority of 19th century quiltmakers, exceptional or not,
are survived by the scantiest paper trails and oral accounts.
Even with their wealth of available documents, Burdick and
Davis spent years tracking down elusive quilts and sorting out
basic facts.
An interesting question emerges from a reading of these two
books: Did the fact that the subject was a quiltmaker influence
the original writing and subsequent preservation of the
documentary evidence? Talula Bottoms recounted in her memoir
that as a child in conflict with a difficult stepmother, she
resolved "to spend every moment of my time that I was not
busy at something that was needed more ... on my quilt work."
(Burdick, 43). Dorinda Slade may well have made a similar
conscious decision about the importance of her quiltmaking in
her life. Her granddaughter remembered that she arranged her
schedule of housework and church work to keep her after-
Page 10 Volume 2, Number 1 1993
noons free for quiltmaking. The variety and sophistication of
her early quilts, made in a remote and rugged Utah settlement,
suggest strongly that quiltmaking had a priority in her life.
Both Talula Bottoms and Dorinda Slade were also remembered for the strength of their characters, especially in the face
of tragedy and loss. Were these strong women who happened
to make quilts, or did their quiltmaking help make them strong
when they were faced with events they could not control? We
can't answer these questions for them; but because of the
dedication of their biographers, we can ponder the questions.
Luckily, several more recent biographies have been written by
or with the help of the quiltmakers themselves. Nellie Snyder
Yost recorded and edited the life story of her mother, Grace
Snyder, in No Time on My Hands (1963; rpt. Lincoln: University
of Nebraska Press, 1986). Consequently, we have a better
understanding of the motivations of this virtuoso artist of the
1940s.
Mary Schafer and Her Quilts (East Lansing: Michigan State
University Museum, 1990) was written by Gwen Marston and
Joe Cunningham, Schafer's longtime associates. The authors
successfully weave together their subject's quilts with the events
of her life, which include her participation in the quilt pattern
round-robins of the 1960s. While admittedly "worshipful," the
authors nonetheless provide us with a meaningful biography.
Most recently, one of the most important figures of the
current quilt art movement released a new book, Nancy Crow:
Quilts and Influences (Paducah: American Quilter's Society,
1990). Crow's book is, as the title suggests, more about her
work and the images and objects which have contributed to her
vision than a standard biography. While it includes a brief
"historical background" section, relatively little of her adult life
outside the studio, her associations with other quilters, or her
teaching is included. While I have a better understanding of the
development of Nancy Crow's work, I came to it through the
excellent color photographs, as was the obvious intention of
the author. What is presented of her thoughts as an artist is told
in the third person in the foreword, more remote and much less
satisfying for me than a first-person account.
In an ideal world, a person's life would be recorded from a
number of perspectives, creating a three-dimensional "hologram"
when combined. Thus we would have the life story in the
subject's own words, another account by a close relative or
disciple, and yet another by an unrelated outsider. Each alone
would be incomplete, but together they would provide a multifaceted portrait. Too, with time, interpretive attitudes change so
significantly that retrospective biographies may provide a better
sense of the context and significance of a subject's life and
work than a single contemporary account.
Some important documentation of the lives of early 20th
The Quilt Journal
century quilters, designers, and collectors was conducted and
shared through informal newsletters in the 1960s and 1970s.
Joyce Gross, whose Quilters' Journal developed from such a
newsletter, is responsible for much of our knowledge of many
of these pioneers, including Lenice Ingram Bacon, Betty
Harriman, Bertha Stenge, Florence Peto, Carrie Hall, Dr. Jeannette
Dean Throckmorton, and Marguerite Ickis. Gross pooled the
knowledge of many active contributors in a plain but accessible
format. The importance of publications like Quilters' Journal,
which was published from 1977 to 1987, to the development
of quilt study is largely unrecognized.
Joyce Gross's article "Four Twentieth Century Quiltmakers"
in Uncoverings 1980 contributed biographical summaries to the
first annual volume of the research papers of the American
Quilt Study Group. Through the years the lives of other notable
individuals have appeared in Uncoverings, including "The
Marketing of Anne Orr's Quilts" by Merikay Waldvogel in 1990,
and "Mary A. McElwain: Quilter and Quilt Businesswoman" by
Pat L. Nickols in 1991. Such biographical studies provide glimpses
into a quilt-centered era we are only beginning to understand.
Many more biographies remain to be researched and written
before we can comprehend the events of our own century.
What does all of this past work suggest to us about recording
the work of our own era? While current quilt magazines and
books frequently include brief biographical sketches of
contemporary quiltmakers, whether famous or not, these are
generally of only a page or two in length. We can hope that
more of today's artists and quiltmakers will consciously document
their lives and works as Nancy Crow has done.
We have a larger range of documentary forms color
photography, magazines, videotape—now than a century ago.
However, written documents such as letters and journals, and
oral materials such as interviews with family and associates, still
form much of the potential raw material for documenting a life.
What becomes obvious from reading about the lives of
earlier quiltmakers is that they valued their work and took steps
to preserve it for posterity. They correctly surmised that future
generations—ours—would appreciate what they had done.
Today's scholars can work with today's quiltmakers to help
them compile and preserve the materials which will interest the
participants in the quilt revivals of the 21st century.
Laurel Horton holds an M.A. in Folklore from the University
of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and an M.S. in Library Science
from the University of Kentucky. She serves on the Board of
Directors for the American Quilt Study Group and edits
Uncoverings, AQSG's annual volume of research papers. She
directed the South Carolina Quilt History Project and is the
author of Social Fabric: South Carolina's Traditional Quilts.
Page 11 Volume 2, Number 1 1993
The QuiltJournal Mission Statement
This is a shortened version of the Mission Statement which
appeared in our first issue. For some readers this second issue
will be their introduction to the Journal, and we felt a statement
of its basic purpose and goals should be included. First-time
readers are advised a full Mission Statement is to be found in
Volume 1, Number 1, 1992.
—Editors' Note
Background
Scholars from a number of disciplines gathered in Louisville,
Kentucky, in February 1992 for "Louisville Celebrates the
American Quilt," produced under the auspices of The Kentucky
Quilt Project, Inc. The Celebration's exhibitions, seminars and
other events were planned to illustrate and further the worldwide
growth of interest in quilts and quilting which has developed
over the past several decades and provide a wider forum for
emerging quilt scholarship. During the two years of planning
and review, directors Jonathan Holstein, Eleanor Bingham
Miller and Shelly Zegart surveyed the vast outpouring of quilt
information in all media. The directors were particularly interested in identifying the most significant trends in quilt scholarship, the future needs of quilt scholars, and the future of quilt
scholarship. They reached three conclusions:
Infancy of Quilt Scholarship
First, quilt scholarship in all areas, domestic and international,
is in its infancy. We are at the beginning of a new quilt era in
which we will witness worldwide development in all areas of
quilt interest and activity. As a consequence, an unprecedented
opportunity exists for documenting and studying the field as it
grows and develops.
social historians, feminist scholars, students of industry and
economics, folklorists, etc. Increasingly quilt scholarship will
draw on other disciplines for insights and information. More
scholars from other areas will be studying quilts. Methodologies of quilt study will change.
International Focus
The final conclusion was that in all areas of quilt activity,
there will be increasing international participation. It is one of
the Journal's missions to facilitate the work of those around the
world who will be coming to quilt research from other fields,
other places and with different visions. The need for a source
of quilt information directed toward other fields and other
countries as well as to the American quilt establishment, toward
the future, is clear.
Mission and Objectives
The Journal will filter from the enormous flow of quilt
information produced in the United States and abroad, things
of interest to other disciplines and to quilt professionals and
amateurs in this and other countries. To accomplish the Journal's
mission the editors intend to:
• Search diligently for and publish interesting and
provocative articles and reviews related to the field which
might not elsewhere be printed;
• Offer a forum to quilt scholars with unusual and interesting
ideas;
• Draw attention to exhibitions, articles and ideas which the
editors feel are significant but might be overlooked;
• Discuss controversial ideas which generally are not being
aired;
Interdisciplinary Involvement
• Invite all interested scholars to submit articles and article
ideas.
A second conclusion which grew from our study of current
quilt scholarship and our experiences at the Celebration was
that the future of quilt study is interdisciplinary. No other
decorative art object carries the quantity or quality of significant
social and aesthetic information to be found in quilts. Embodied in the objects are data of the greatest interest to art and
The Quilt Journal will also examine critically where it is
appropriate publications, conferences and exhibitions of interest to the field. We wish to welcome all of you to The Quilt
Journal: An International Review and look forward to communicating important quilt information to you in coming years.
Copyright 1993
Insert to The Quilt Journal Volume 2, Number 1 1993
The Publisher
quilts for the first time as designed objects and is noted as the
The Kentucky Quilt Project, Inc., a not-for-profit, 501(c)3,
starting point for the modern quilt renaissance. Numerous other
organization, was founded in 1981 by Shelly Zegart, Eleanor
exhibitions curated by them and drawn from their collection
Bingham Miller and Eunice Ray to survey the state's quilts. An
were seen across the United States and abroad and gave wide
exhibition "Kentucky Quilts: 1800-1900," which traveled widely
circulation to their view of quilts as aesthetic objects. These
in the United States and abroad with the Smithsonian
exhibitions were instrumental in creating a worldwide awareInstitution Traveling Exhibition Service, and a catalogue of the
ness of American quilts. Holstein continues to curate quilt exhisame title followed the completion of the survey. The Kentucky
bitions. His writing in the field began with the catalogue of the
project was the first such state-wide quilt survey and has served
Whitney exhibition. His book The Pieced Quilt: An American
as a model for many others in the United States and elsewhere
Design Tradition, a study of the history and aesthetic basis of
in the world. Others of its projects include securing for Kentucky
American quilts, was published in 1973, and many articles and
a quilt by the American 19th century master quiltmaker
exhibition catalogues followed. He wrote the introduction and
Virginia Ivey, assembling an exhibition of Kentucky quilts for
commentaries for The Kentucky Quilt Project's exhibition cataAustralia, and giving financial assistance to other quilt groups
logue, Kentucky Quilts 1800-1900, in 1983 and has been a
for special projects. In 1991-1992 it sponsored "Louisville
Director of that group since 1984. In 1991-92, with fellow DiCelebrates the American Quilt," planned to illustrate and further
rectors Shelly Zegart and Eleanor Bingham Miller, he organized
the worldwide growth of interest in quilts and quilting which
and produced "Louisville Celebrates the American Quilt." A new
has developed over the past several decades and provide a wider
book, Abstract Design in American Quilts: A Biography of an
Exhibition, was published in 1992.
forum for emerging quilt scholarship. Included were six
exhibitions: a re-creation of the 1971 Whitney Museum of
Eleanor Bingham Miller was a founder of The Kentucky
American Art exhibition, "Abstract Design in American Quilts;"
Quilt
Project, Inc., organized in 1981 to survey her state's
"A Plain Aesthetic: Lancaster Amish Quilts;" "Always There: The
quilts;
and she has been active in all of its projects since then,
African-American Presence in American Quilts;" "Quilts Now;"
including
the 1991-92 production of "Louisville Celebrates the
"Narrations: The Quilts of Yvonne Wells and Carolyn
American Quilt." She is a filmmaker and a partner in Double
Mazloomi;" "Quilt Conceptions: Quilt Designs in Other Media;"
and four conferences: "The African American and the American Play Productions, New York.
Quilt;" 'Directions in Quilt Scholarship;" "Quilts and Collections:
Shelly Zegart was a founding director in 1981 of The KenPublic, Private and Corporate ;" "Toward an International Quilt
tucky Quilt Project, the first state documentation project. Her
Bibliography." Two books were published in conjunction with
initial interest in collecting quilts expanded with the Kentucky
the Celebration: Abstract Design in American Quilts: A
state survey to a full-time involvement in the field. Zegart lecBiography
o an Exhibition , written by Jonathan
of
J
Holstein ,
tures on all aspects of quilt history and aesthetics. She has
foreword by Shelly Zegart; and Always There: The African
Af
curated many exhibitions here and abroad, including an exhiAmerican Presence in American Quilts, authored by Cuesta
bition of Kentucky quilts in Australia. In 1992 she curated
Benberry, forewords by Jonathan Holstein and Shelly Zegart. The
"Quilts Now," an exhibition of contemporary quilts. Her articles
Quilt Project, an offshoot of The Kentucky Quilt Project, Inc., is
have appeared in numerous publications. In 1992, she wrote
a new parent organization for this journal.
forewords for Abstract Design in American Quilts: A Biography
of an Exhibition and Always There: The African American
The Editors
Presence in American Quilts. She continues to act as an advisor
Jonathan Holstein's' interest in quilts began in the 1960s
to other groups conducting state quilt surveys. In 1991-92 with
when he and Gail van der Hoof began to collect and study
fellow quilt project directors Jonathan Holstein and Eleanor
quilts, concentrating on their aesthetic qualities. The exhibition
Bingham Miller she organized and produced "Louisville Celthey curated at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New
ebrates the American Quilt. "
York, in 1971, "Abstract Design in American Quilts," showed
Memberships and Donations
Membership in The Quilt Project supports the publication of The Quilt Journal, the effort to establish and maintain an international
quilt index, and other quilt-related educational endeavors. Membership for 1993, will bring you The Quilt Journal twice a year. Upon
joining, members will be entitled to a one-time discount of 15% on all publications, patrons and sponsors 25%.
Categories of Membership are:
Overseas Memberships add $5.00 per year for surface shipping. All
donations to The Kentucky Quilt Project, Inc., are tax deductible.
Phone: 502-587-6721. Fax: 502-598-9411. Mail to The Kentucky
Quilt Project, Inc., P.O. Box 6251, Louisville, KY 40206.