1790 - 1799 Esther Wheat's Wool Quilt
date: label: Date made
content: 1790-1799
name: label: quilter
content: Wheat, Esther
notes: label: Description
content: Esther Wheat's quilt is an example of a glazed wool fabric, not only used for bedding but also petticoats in the eighteenth century. The shiny surface of the quilt top was achieved by calendering, a process of applying heat and pressure with metal plates or rollers to a worsted fabric. In Esther's quilt the high sheen of the fabric enhanced the elaborate quilting of the large feathered heart and two pineapples surrounded by a scrolling vine with flowers. According to the donor, Esther Wheat Lee's great-great-granddaughter, the original plain weave yellow wool lining wore thin and was replaced by Esther's daughter, Olive Lee Doolittle. A thin layer of cotton fiber filling was added before the second lining of red twill weave cotton and wool was quilted to the original lining, but not through the quilt top.
label: Description
content: Esther Wheat made this quilted indigo-blue wool bed cover for her dower chest in the 1790s. Esther, a twin, was born in 1774 in Conway, Massachusetts. She married Benjamin Lee in 1799 and died at Canastota, New York in 1847. Esther's quilt was passed down through five generations of women before being donated to the Smithsonian in 1973.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Quilting
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
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content: Textiles
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content: Domestic Furnishings
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content: Quilts
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Miss Olive E. Hurlburt
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.T16380
label: catalog number
content: T16380.000
label: accession number
content: 308057
label: accession number
content: 1973.308057
objectType: label: Object Name
content: quilted counterpane
label: Object Type
content: counterpanes
label: Object Type
content: quilts
label: Other Terms
content: quilted counterpane; Counterpane; Household Textile
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: fabric, wool, cotton/wool twill (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: indigo (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: quilted (overall production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: wool, cotton (overall thread)
label: Physical Description
content: wool (overall filling)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 91 in x 93 in; 231 cm x 237 cm