The Fair sponsored a 1940 quilt contest "Through the Needle's Eye". The New York Public Library has publicity photos with captions---the above picturing the seven judges who awarded first to Bertha Stenge of Chicago for her Hosannah Palm Leaf quilt.
Merikay Waldvogel and I have done much research on a similar contest at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair and found out quite a bit, as Sears, Roebuck & Company and the Fair who co-sponsored the contest had an energetic publicity department announcing the contest and crediting runners-up and prizewinners in the newspapers of the time.
Similar contests---but certainly not the same. The 1933 event attracted over 20,000 entries, of which we have documented hundreds. The 1939-1940 contests held in a different era attracted hundreds of entries to the two different competitions. Bertha Stenge won the official fair contest in 1940 but Good Housekeeping magazine and Macy's Department Store had sponsored a 1939 contest based on the fair's official theme: The World of Tomorrow---more about that contest in the next post.
The Fair's Director of Publicity Hamilton M. Wright Jr., seems to have neglected the female audience who might have been interested in a national needlework contest.
Newspaper references to any quilt other than Bertha Stenge's haven't showed up yet.
Next post: Quilts from the earlier contest: Better Living In The World of Tomorrow sponsored by Good Housekeeping and Macy's.
$600 in 1940 would be over $13000 in today's dollars. Evidently quilt prizes have not kept up with inflation.
ReplyDeleteI have a needlebook from the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. Pretty sure it was my grandmother's. And your book on that fascinates me for some reason!
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