Tonight, URI honors the volunteers and quilt owners who made the documentation project and subsequent book possible. It also pays tribute to the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities, which funded all phases of the project, the URI Foundation and Cranston Print Works. Through their research, Welters and Ordonez found that the quilts express Rhode Island's unique social history. The book published by The Kent State University Press connects history, culture, and technology to quilts in Rhode Island and details developments in the textile industry that affected materials available to quilt makers. The essays in Part I examine technological developments and textile production spinning, weaving, dyeing and printing as illustrated in quilt fabrics.
Additional pieces link quilts to the state's historic, cultural and social heritage.
Shorter stories in Part 2 look at 30 quilts dating from the mid-18th century through 1935. Through the book, you'll get to know the families and people of Rhode Island. Other states had completed such projects, but Rhode Island lagged behind, Welters said. The project was a collaborative effort from the beginning, involving faculty, staff, and students at URI, consultants, newspaper reporters, volunteers from local quilters' organizations, staff of public libraries, historical houses, museums and the general public. All proceeds will go to the URI Foundation.