Enduring Comfort: Quilts from the West's Pioneers

Imagine it’s 1836, and you are on the first wagon train along the Oregon Trail. After making it across the western plains, through the Rocky Mountains and finally to the Pacific Northwest, you have shipped to you your favorite quilt, a reminder of your home back in New York. That quilt, which belonged to Eliza Spalding, is among the quilts in an exhibit that opens Saturday.

Patterns from the Past: Pioneer Quilts brings together the works of emigrants heading west, settling in small farming communities as well as large cities. The artistic and utilitarian aspects of these quilts reflect the economic status of their makers. For example, you can see that a pioneer patchwork quilt from the Museum’s collection was created for warmth. It is thick with wool batting and is made from old clothes and blankets – whatever the quilter had available.

A Victorian era “crazy quilt,” a patchwork of irregular shapes of velvet, satin, or silk, embellished with lace, ribbons, or embroidery reflects the leisure activity of women of higher social status. (They weren’t spending their days working on a farm!) Women in cities, usually with affluent husbands (such as government officials), usually would be those who made crazy quilts.

“In viewing these quilts – including one that is so fragile it will be on display in a glass case –you can see how, during a period of 50 to 100 years, the patterns and techniques were moving from England and France to the East Coast settlements and on to the West,” said Curator of Collections and Exhibits Tracy Johnson.

The exhibit runs through August 1.