1864 Civil War Album Quilt Top
date: label: date made
content: 1864
name: label: maker
content: unknown
notes: label: Description
content: Three hundred eighty-four 3 ¾-inch squares of printed and plain white cottons were used to create this quilt top. The plain white squares were all inscribed in ink by many different hands. Several squares are dated “June 1864” and some state a place, “Amherst, Mass.” Most squares contain religious messages, but some secular inscriptions are evident: “Three cheers for the Red, white & blue 1864” “God save Gen. Grant and his brave men” and "A remembrance from the children of Amherst June 1864."
label: Description
content: On July 1, 1864, the "Hampshire and Franklin Express" published the following note (p. 2) under "LATEST WAR NEWS":
label: Description
content: "Album Bed-quilts"
label: Description
content: "The Ladies Soldiers' Aid Society of this village [Amherst, Mass] are making quite a number of small hospital quilts, of patch-work, on every square of which is most neatly written in indelible ink, a sentiment of sympathy, a verse of scripture, or a choice scrap of poetry or prose, and are altogether, very beautiful articles, and cannot fail to be comforting to the wounded soldier to decipher, as he lies on his weary couch of pain."
label: Description
content: The pieced top was used to cover an older wool quilt (TE*T14021.00A) and the finished product was sent to a Union army hospital during the Civil War.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Amherst
topic: label: Subject
content: Civil War
label: Subject
content: Quilting
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
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content: Quilts
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content: Textiles
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content: Domestic Furnishings
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.T14021.00B
label: accession number
content: 272176
label: catalog number
content: T14021B
objectType: label: Object Name
content: quilt
label: Object Name
content: quilt top
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: fabric, cotton (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: thread, cotton (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: pieced, inscribed (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 90 in x 60 in; 229 cm x 152 cm