Eagle Qults #3: Presidential Politics

Quilt from the Christ collection, attributed to the 1850s

An eagle with no olive branches in the talons.

(Olives might be growing below)

I've been showing eagle quilts dated in the 1850s, a curious burst of patriotic imagery

a few years before the Civil War.

Buy a pattern from Arlene here:

http://www.thechristcollections.com/assets/American_Pride_Eagles_Stars_Pattern.pdf

The Christ collection's repeat-block eagle is one of the more aggressive birds with arrows of war

in both talons.

To remind you---the usual American symbol grasps both

the olive branch of peace and the arrows of war.

Eagles between stars

From a sampler dated 1860

Who were we threatening in the 1850s?

During that decade the United States was at relative peace with the rest of the world. The war to annex Mexican territories was over by 1848. California became a state in 1850 and further southwestern territory was peacefully purchased in 1853.  Any of our continuing scuffles with England were temporarily over with Canadian boundary settlements for the Oregon Territory.

Admiral Perry's uninvited incursions into Japanese territory were handled through diplomacy rather than war. 

If we were not at war with a foreign power perhaps we were at war with ourselves.

I was re-reading the Maryland Album quilt book and came across some ideas in the discussion of an eagle quilt made by Margaret Buckey in 1857.

Quilt by Margaret Buckey, Frederick County, Maryland, 1857.

Collection of the Historical Society of Carroll County.

Joanne Manwaring of the Historical Society of Carroll County speculated that this quilt might have been inspired by the Know-Nothing Party, formally known as the American Party. She noted the Know-Nothings were popular in Carroll County in the 1850s and pointed out their use of an eagle symbol in their advertising.

Advertisement for an 1856 political event.

1856 was a Presidential Election year. The winner was Democrat James Buchanan.

Nathan Currier poster for the Democratic ticket

Buchanan & Breckenridge

The Whigs had gone down to final defeat and the

new Republican party nominated John C. Fremont

and William L. Dayton.

But there was a very viable third party The American Party

that nominated former President Millard Fillmore and

running mate Andrew J. Donelson.

Notice that each of these Currier prints

uses an eagle above the candidates' portraits

Millard Fillmore: American Candidate

The party were also known as the Know Nothings.

So attributing an eagle quilt to enthusiasm for a particular party

seems futile.

Unless there is more evidence like a political print.

Someone brought this Maine quilt with the Fremont/Dayton print

to a meeting of the Studio Quilt Study Group in 2003.

http://www.quilthistory.com/study/may18.htm

You may have noticed in the Fremont/Republican poster

above that the eagle is holding nothing but arrows.

HMMM.

Lydia Stafford's quilt at the Shelburne.

Date?

The Democrat/Buchanan eagle seems to have

 vague olive branches in the background behind

arrows clutched in two talons.

While the American Know-Nothing/Fillmore poster features

an eagle who is all vegetation and no arrows.

What's it all mean? Maybe nothing. 

It may just be Nathan Currier's opinion of the candidates rather

than any official party imagery.

The cover of the Magazine Antiques in 1933

Me? I Know Nothing.

But I will speculate. More tomorrow on the Know Nothings.

Eagles Quilts #2: Quarrelsome Eagles

Quilt for Robert McDonald, 1855

Old Hope Antiques

As I noted yesterday I've been sorting my pictures of date-inscribed quilts and have made it through the 1850s. People made a lot of quilts in that decade. Yesterday I showed several eagle medallions.

I've also been struck with how popular this particular eagle block was.

Alice Payne's quilt dated 1856

from Barb Vedder's collection.

https://funwithbarbandmary.blogspot.com/2014/10/playing-house-with-alice-payne.html

This is the earliest dated example I have in the picture file:

 1851, initials SJS.

Many of today's eagles are from sampler quilts.

 A watercolor done by W.P.A. artist Charlotte Angus

in the late 1930s. Would be fun to come across this one with four eagles.

1860 dated sampler

From an online auction

What the birds have in common is:

• They are spread eagles.
• They have a federal shield on their chests.
• They carry a banner on a string.
• Wings are two parts; tails 2 or 3.
• They often have two stars or circles above them (and sometimes below).
• They carry the usual US symbols in their talons---the olive branch of peace and the arrows of war.

1898 for Peter Shank

"Remember the Giver"

A later version

Except they sometimes are quite belligerent, omitting any peaceful discussion. No olive branches here. The symbolism indicates a strong political position but the meaning seems to be lost.

The Shelburne Museum has a repeat block

of the same warrior eagle by Lydia Stafford.

Stafford's quilt was stylized for the cover of 

The Magazine Antiques in July, 1933.

And the Aunt Martha pattern company put a more stylized version on the cover of their 1933 catalog,

which included some quilts from the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago.

The Sunnyside Album quilt, dated 1898

Collection of the International Quilt Study Center & Museum

The pattern was popular in the 1850s and had

a revival in the late 19th century in Ohio's Miami River Valley.

Sue C. Cummings wrote a book about these later sampler quilts.

 (It's still in print!)

I recently noticed that IQSC has quite a collection of

the belligerant eagles. This one from the Ditmer Family in Ohio seems

to be from the mid-19th century. 

IQSC # 2016.014.0022_1200

Nothing in the banner and no olive branches.

I have stitched this particular eagle several times. 

He was in my Bicentennial Quilt in 1976.

I have to find that and photograph it.

Jean Stanclift made a reproduction quilt for my

book Civil War Women. It's 100 inches square.

And so did Janet Finley. This one's 58" square. 

 We used the Shelburne's peaceful little bird border.

Patti Poe combined the eagle with our War & Pieces border.

The full-sized pattern for the Four-Block quilt is in Civil War Women.

 You can buy the book from C&T Publishing

as a Print-on-Demand book or an eBook.

http://www.ctpub.com/civil-war-women-print-on-demand-edition/

I've also digitized the pattern for the 36" eagle block and the bird and swag border.

You can buy it in my Etsy shop.

As a paper pattern through the mail:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/577256218/warrior-eagle-historic-applique-quilt?

Or as a PDF to print yourself

https://www.etsy.com/listing/591040669/warrior-eagle-historic-applique-quilt?

Read more about the eagle here:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2016/05/an-eagle-quilt-by-charlotte-angus.html

Next post: Why so many eagles in the 1850s? More thought on 1850s politics this week.

Eagle Quilts #1: 1853

Quilt signed C.A.C., 1853

Collection of the National Museum of American Art

Smithsonian Institution

I spent some time last year gathering pictures of quilts with dates inscribed on them and filing them on Pinterest pages by decades or years. The eagle quilt above is on the 1853 page.

Click here:

https://www.pinterest.com/materialculture/1853-quilts-date-inscribed/

I'm only up to 1860. 

We recognize the spread eagle with olive branch

and arrows as a symbol of the United States

My goal for this year is to analyze all those images before I go on to the post-1860 years. How did quilts change over time? How did quilting's popularity ebb and flow? How did trends in trade, technology and taste affect that? And in the case of the political imagery like the eagle how did politics influence quiltmaking?

Quilt dated 1853

See more about these eagle quilts with Washington on horseback at this post:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2018/01/washington-on-horseback.html

If you look at that 1853 page you will notice an enthusiasm for eagles.

Quilt dated 1853

Collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art

Each pieced star represents a state. Here is Maryland's.

What happened in 1853 of political importance? Franklin Pierce was inaugurated in March, 1853. The Pierce presidency, recalled as one of the worst ever, was a slow-motion train wreck as the North and South became ever more divided. Pierce's inauguration was not likely to inspire such lively images.*

Other current events in pre-Civil War politics tend to be recalled as rather dull. Senator Stephen A. Douglas started working on the Kansas/Nebraska act, which would become a flashpoint in 1854 but that was next year. Senator Henry Clay's death in July, 1853, however, was not just the quiet passing of a politician but an occasion for national mourning. Is that the key?

Quilt signed Phelps, 1853.

Sotheby Auction

Sotheby's assumes it was made in Phelps, Ontario County, New York

Henry Clay had inspired many quilts and this one may be one of them. The words are
"INDUSTRY" above the eagles head and in the ribbon: "WHERE LIBERTY DWELLS, THERE IS MY COUNTRY," attributed to Benjamin Franklin. The word Industry referred to American production, implying support for tarrifs, protectionism that was a Clay motto.

Clay ran for President unsuccessfully three times.

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2008/important-americana-n08400/lot.187.html

Quilt dated 1853 by Lucy Shephard Loomis (1825-1907) Baltimore

Collection of the International Quilt Study Center & Museum,

#2007-022-0001

Quilt commissioned by Maria Theresa Baldwin Hollander 

Collection of Historic New England

This small silk quilt with an antislavery message is not dated but it was shown at the 1853 Crystal Palace Exhibition in New York City where it received national attention, perhaps inspiring a surge of eagle quilts.

See a post here:

http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2014/11/abolitionist-quilt-at-crystal-palace.html

I thought I'd examine the politics of the 1850s and more eagle quilts over the next few days. 

Look for a post tomorrow.

*I was reading antislavery activist Hannah Ropes's letters in Civil War Nurse the other day and here's how she described  President Franklin Pierce: "the most unmitigated calamity Heaven ever suffered upon the earth." I doubt he inspired many quilts.