Signature quilt

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Date

ca. 1862

Description

Cotton. Quilts consisting of hundreds of pieces of fabric sewn together became popular in the mid-1800s thanks to the increasing availability of inexpensive printed cottons. This example descended in the Onderdonk family of Manhasset and was hand stitched in the early 1860s by members of the local Dutch Reformed Church, each of whom contributed a square signed with their name and town. Communities often created quilts such as this to commemorate major life events or to support a cause, like the US Civil War, which was then raging in the South. Women on both sides of the conflict stepped up to keep troops warm and dry, referring to their needles as weapons as they metaphorically fought alongside their “brothers in the field.” Although it is unclear if this quilt ever made it down to a soldier at camp, the ongoing fight to preserve the Union was certainly on the minds of those who painstakingly stitched it together. This item was featured in the Voices and Votes: Democracy in America Exhibition

Type

Artifact

Region

Long Island

Era

Civil War and Reconstruction

Topic

Civil War, Community, Women

Repository

Preservation Long Island

Identifier

2019.2

Source

Preservation Long Island

Rights

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