1864 Mary Seamans's Album Quilt
date: label: date made
content: 1864
label: date made
content: 1869
name: label: maker
content: unknown
notes: label: Description
content: Friends of Mary Elizabeth Hitchcock Seamans created this quilt of fifty-six 9½-inch blocks, possibly on the occasion of her marriage to Stephen Harris Seamans in 1864, or possibly before they left for Wisconsin. All but 8 of the blocks contain either embroidered or inked names of friends and family.
label: Description
content: The blocks are made of printed and white cottons in the “Friendship Chain,” or “Album,” pattern. The border has machine-stitched initials “MES,” a back-stitched date “May 4th,” and the hand quilted year “1864.” One block has a tiny pair of embroidered mittens which according to the family represented a suitor Mary had rejected; she had “given him the mitten,” a phrase popular in the 19th century.
label: Description
content: This Album Quilt is one of three quilts donated from the same family.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States
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 Mrs. Margaret Seamans Birch
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.T13542
label: catalog number
content: T13542
label: accession number
content: 257115
objectType: label: Object Name
content: quilt
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: fabric, cotton (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: thread, cotton, silk (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: filling, cotton (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 87 in x 83 in; 221 cm x 210 cm