1935 - 1945 Mary Louisa Matthews' Child's Quilt
date: label: date made
content: 1935 - 1945
name: label: maker
content: Matthews, Mary Louisa
notes: label: Description
content: Mary Louisa Matthews crafted this child’s quilt incorporating popular nursery rhyme motifs in each of the twelve blocks for her great niece, the donor. The blocks are each 7 ½” square, embroidered and set in 3 ½” sashing. These in turn are framed by a 1 ½” white border and a 2” outer border. Embroidered inscriptions include: “Dutch Boy,” “O Grandmother What Big Eyes You’ve Got,” “Hi Diddle Diddle,” “Goldilocks,” “Three Men in a Tub,” “Sunbonnet Sue,” “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” “Mother Hubbard,” “Overall Boy,” “Little Boy Blue,” “Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater,” and, “Little Tin Soldiers.” Bound with a plain green ¼” strip and tied with white wool in a few places.
label: Description
content: Mary Louisa Matthews was born August 28, 1864, in Cleveland, Ohio. She attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (Mount Holyoke College) in Massachusetts in the 1880s. She taught at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, before going to Monastir (now Bitola) Macedonia as a missionary in 1888. It was there that she began her work as a teacher at a boarding school, American School for Girls. During the time she lived there (1888 – 1920) she wrote detailed letters and diaries that are now in the Archives at Mount Holyoke College. After returning to the U.S. in 1920 she once again taught at Fisk University and continued her missionary work. She died in Lancaster, Wisconsin, December 31, 1950. Her nursery rhyme quilt is a small example of one of her many talents.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Ohio, Oberlin
topic: label: Subject
content: Quilting
label: Subject
content: Children
label: Subject
content: Children's Literature
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
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Margaret Hanson
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2018.0094.01
label: accession number
content: 2018.0094
label: catalog number
content: 2018.0094.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: quilt
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: fabric, cotton (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: thread, cotton (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: filling (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 54 in x 42 in; 137 cm x 107 cm