An Eagle Quilt for Baltimore's Mayor 1852

Baltimore about 1850

I found this story in an Indiana newspaper.

"Handsome Present.
The Mayor of Baltimore has been presented with a quilt by a lady of that city over seventy years of age---The quilt is entirely her own handiwork and contains in the centre a beautifully finished American eagle, surrounded by stars representing the thirty-one states, the initials of the Presidents of the United States, and the names of the last four Mayors of Baltimore---The four corners are bordered with exquisitely proportioned flowers, which together with the devices described above, are worked in variegated silk. The accomplishment of this tasteful piece of work by such a venerable dame presents an example which should excite the emulation of misses forming the rising generation."

The Evansville, Indiana Daily Journal printed this article July 9, 1852, copying the article from the New Orleans Picayune.

The Mayor of Baltimore mid-1852 was John Hanson Thomas Jerome (c 1816-1863).

John H.T.Jerome

owned a large grocery store.

He and his wife Henrietta Dyer (married in 1837) had at least two daughters:
Sarah Armitage (about 1845- 1906) who married Elmon Allen Shipley (1835-1912) and had at least one  child.
Mary Viginia who married Matthew Kelly Aiken and had 9 children.

The previous four mayors of the city:

1842-1843 Solomon Hillen, Jr.
1843-1844 James O. Law
1844-1848 Jacob G. Davies
1848-1850 Elijah Stansbury

In case you come across a silk eagle quilt with their initials on it.

Of course, the first seventy-plus woman I thought of was Anna Catharine Garnhart (1773-1860).

She would have been about 79 in 1852 and she liked to make eagle quilts.

Three similar Catherine Garnhart eagle quilts in three different museums.

See more about Catherine Garnhart here:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2013/08/anna-catharine-garnhart-by-alden-obrien.html

Three Garnhart eagles....but none is silk.