Smithsonian Collection
85" x 100"
The National Museum of American History owns a large quilt top (a bound summer spread) with the donor attribution that it was made about 1840 by an enslaved woman named Ann at the Womack plantation in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. Slave-stitched quilts rarely survive with the maker's name associated so the initial reaction might be that this could be an important piece, adding to our knowledge of how enslaved seamstresses used the patchwork format.
Ann lived in Pittsylvania County down by the North Carolina state line. The county seat is Danville.
Ann is mentioned along with many other enslaved people in William Womack's 1849 will, in which he bequeathed human property. William's wife Martha inherited Ann, perhaps Martha was the "Aunt Patsy" married to "Uncle Billy" mentioned by the donor. Patsy was a common nickname for Martha at the time. A Martha J. Thompson married a William Womack in Pittsylvania County in 1825.
However, as we learn more about dating quilts by fabric, dyes, and style, it becomes apparent that the family was mistaken about the date of the quilt and thus its status as a slave-made quilt. The appliqued bedcover was NOT sewn by an enslaved woman as it looks to be from about 1880-1920, many decades after Emancipation. Ann may have indeed stitched it but after years of freedom in a completely different context.
The caption notes that the blocks may have been made in the 1840s but the setting was probably later.
But the blocks and the set date to the same time period---about 1880-1920.
It's bound with a chrome orange solid, also in the cornerstone set.
This older mineral dye was one of the most reliable of the era.
One reliable clue to dating is this teal blue-green solid, a fugitive synthetic dye that soon turned to a dun or khaki color in some dye lots. The dye was called Brilliant Green. The quiltmaker had enough colorfast blue-green for leaves and stems in the applique but those two corner strips at the top must have been her only leftovers from the applique. The rest of the sashing has faded dramatically ---as solids from the 1880-1930 period often did.
Dye manufacturers Kneck, Rawon & Lowenthal published a dye manual with an accompanying volume featuring tipped-in samples of cotton and wool glued into the book. Here are 3 views of sample # 30 Brilliant green scanned from 3 different copies of the book, some getting more light than others. The dye was so fugitive it faded even in bound books. There were other versions of the synthetic dye called Brilliant green but I bet this is the culprit in teal blue-green fading to tan.
The applique artist seems to have had two reds as she alternated them in the tulip-like blooms in all the blocks.
The lighter red tulips may have always been a shade of pink, brighter
at one time. Solids were so disappointing in the early synthetic colors.
But the pinks might have been the unreliable solid red that looked like the Turkey red vegetable dye on the bolt but also quickly faded, perhaps synthetic dye Congo red, also a good clue to a post-1880 date
Revealing example of how Congo red fades. Set of blocks exposed to light. Top block = most light. But even the bottom block has faded showing how the light penetrates the thin fabrics. This may explain why looking at the seams of faded reds tells us nothing about the original color. Turkey red in the diamonds; Congo red in the baskets.
The quilt in question may offer us information on the later quilts of freedwomen, an important research project, but I'm afraid it can tell us nothing about patchwork made by women living in slavery.
More posts on fugitive synthetics and how they offer clues to quilt dating.
Thank you, Barbara, for this research. The myths that family items accrete are sometimes bizarre. It’s interesting to me that this family legend suggests that the quiltmaker wove the fabric for this quilt when it’s obviously made from commercial fabric.
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