Important Quilt in a New Home

Woman's Rights Quilt

About 1880

What a wonderful surprise to come across this quilt in the digital gallery of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is a recent acquisition with the accession number 2011.538, indicating it was acquired last year. It's known as the Woman's Rights quilt because several of the pictorial blocks show banners with part of the motto "Woman Rights".              

I first saw this quilt in the 1980s at an exhibit in Chicago. The quilt is a narrative about a woman who is wearing a checkered apron or skirt. It's possibly the story of her life. Here she is riding to give a speech on the topic and the banner says "Woman Rig...."

Her husband seems to be supportive of her mission.

She's waving goodbye and holding a banner that says "Woman R."

He or someone else in the family served in the Civil War.

The last time I saw it was at the American Quilt Study Group Seminar in San Jose where Julie Silber of the Quilt Complex had organized the antique quilt exhibit.

The amazing thing about it is that it is both a Civil War commemorative and a women's rights commemorative: Two rather rare items.

The curators at the Metropolitan organized a purchase with "Funds from various donors, 2011."

http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/10024736?img=2

Thanks! to those various donors, the curators and to the Quilt Complex.

My new weekly quilt blog will feature 49 blocks to commemorate the fight for women's rights. The first free Block of the Week for Grandmother's Choice will be posted on September 1, 2012. See the Saturday Morning Post by clicking here:

http://grandmotherschoice.blogspot.com/