This exhibition catalogue with essays on forty quilts, most of them fancy and owned by California institutions, builds on the California quilt survey book in defining the contribution of this western border state to U.S. quiltmaking history. Author Sandi Fox foregrounds this inclusion theme in describing quiltmaking as “that unbroken tradition that now stretched across the continent” (169).
Apparent here are two major features of California’s role in U.S. quiltmaking: (1) a repository of quilts that were made elsewhere, and (2) region-distinctive aspects of history and popular culture, such as an early Hispanic presence, cowboys, the film industry, and the Mt. Wilson Observatory at Pasadena. Reflecting California’s destination status, about half of the quilts in the catalogue were not made in the state, and the makers of several that were grew up elsewhere. Again emphasizing the national inclusion theme, Fox states that if any quilt had survived from the earliest known (1846) documented quilting party in California, “it would look no different than what had been made in Arkansas and Missouri and Illinois—this was the nature of quiltmaking as it came to, and flourished in, California” (22).
Given the portability of quilts, the geographic mobility of the U.S. population, and the market for old quilts across state lines, this dispersion factor complicates all region-based quilt studies, but it looms especially large in those of western states. In fact, in the California quilt survey book (Laury 1990), symbols indicate each quilt’s means of arrival (covered wagon, ship, train, U.S. Mail, moving van, etc.); the state flower, a poppy, marks those made in-state.
A former collection curator of quilts at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Fox has written several quilt exhibition catalogues and is an associate fellow of the International Quilt Study Center and Museum. She organized this exhibition with The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles, at whose Museum & Galleries it ran from October to December 2002. Fox also was an advisor to the California quilt survey project, which culminated in a book that presents 101 quilts selected from about 3,300 documented statewide (Laury 1990). At least nine of the 101 appear here, with larger photographs and more detail shots.
About three-fourths of the quilts presented here apparently were made as display pieces or bedspreads rather than for warmth. These show pieces demonstrate substantial investments in materials and time (for design as well as construction). Their makers, for the most part, had fine needlework skills, substantial discretionary income, and high social status; there are no string quilts (an eminently economical vernacular style) and few if any that testify to improvisational skills.
The non-elegant quilts included here are ones tied to important historical events, public realm issues, or popular culture. For instance, the essay on Susan Lohry’s relatively humble quilt (made with dress scraps around 1878) gives biographical information, then moves to the topic of political textiles based on the Ulysses S. Grant campaign banner that is part of the quilt’s backing. Fox lists it as “The ‘God and Grant’ Quilt” rather than by its common pattern names (Birds-in-the-Air or Flying Birds), and does not mention its machine-quilting, likely an expression of wealth in this period before sewing machines were common (100-03; Laury 1990:69). A quilt, made around 1935, on which twenty-seven cattle brands are embroidered, is titled “The Brands Quilt.” Noting that little is known about the maker (“Mrs. Burke”), Fox focuses on the history and use of brands with no discussion of quilt-historical topics such as: other quilts with brands, its iconic Wedding Ring pattern, or Mrs. Burke’s quirky quilting motifs (164-67).
The foregrounding of political, historical, and popular culture contexts in some cases serves to compensate for a lack of provenance, a common condition of museum quilts (fourteen of those here have unknown makers). For instance, regarding a floral appliqué quilt, made about 1865, that “descended through the Beegle family with very little of its history intact,” Fox writes, “We are left, then, to consider the object apart from its origins” (72). But she also takes this tack in some cases where provenance is known (for instance, the essay on Thelma Norman Ryan’s “Cowboys Quilt” focuses on cowboy dress, although the state survey book presents biographical data) (154-59; Laury 1990:125-27). This approach may reflect a desire to present new data since Fox has written about some of the quilts previously (13); and it may be geared to reaching an audience beyond the ranks of quilt enthusiasts, perhaps history fans or California residents generally.
A valuing of state history also is conveyed by the use of non-quilt artifacts (paintings, photographs, dresses, a doll); non-quilt-oriented historical sources; and essays on historical events that include no extant quilts (early quilting parties; an 1845 shipwreck where some of the cloth cargo likely was diverted to quiltmaking; and “itinerant entertainer” John Tam, who sewed crazy quilt-style “stage suits” and stage decorations in the late 1800s).
The representation of quilts in this catalogue stands to counter stereotypes of California, since at least the 1960s, as eccentric, counter-cultural, and ethnically diverse (with Mexican-, Asian-, Russian-, and African American components). It does so by anchoring California quiltmaking in contexts of English heritage and U.S. popular culture. English cultural references include an early 1800s quilt possibly made in England (6-9); the Victoria and Albert Museum (98-99, 115); the custom of collecting fabric samples with labels that tell what each material was used for (98-99); the custom of wounded soldiers making quilts (104); two California quilts in a “classic” English pattern (112); and Oscar Wilde’s aesthetic influence (121-23). U.S. popular culture references include classic children’s literature (128-31); the log cabin (150-53;, cowboys (154, 160, 164); Methodist-Episcopal fund-raising quilts (170, 174); cigars (142, 144); and Hollywood (178, 182).
In the case of Doña Juana de Dios Machado Alipas Wrightington, apparently the only quiltmaker listed who is not of Anglo or northern European ancestry, Fox upholds a nationalistic California identity in stating that her floral appliqué quilt, made about 1860, “is without question in the American tradition” (82). This judgment seems not to consider whether any of the quilt’s features could represent an overlap of U.S. and Hispanic vernacular design, and I wondered about this possibility since its red-and-white color scheme and medallion set are atypical of floral appliqué quilts in this period (although other traits are typical of U.S. quiltmaking in this period).
Additional questions and critiques that I have include the following: whether a proposition is “narrowly defeated” if the vote is 45 percent to 55 percent (192); the fabrics in a quilt dated ca. 1900 look more like ca. 1885 to me (90-93); Fox quotes a quilt inscription as reading “warranty” but the word on the quilt is “warrants” (192-94); a quilt that consists of square pieces in two alternating colors is described as a One-Patch but actually is a Two-Patch (otherwise a Nine-Patch would be a One-Patch) (88); a quilt dated ca. 1901 is said to be made of twentieth-century cottons (104); and Fox seems to argue in one essay against using specific pattern names (64) but elsewhere uses them (for instance, 78). In addition, she provides much information without attribution, for instance, how does she know that the doll’s name is “Charity Hopkins” (88)? Also, when data are available, I would like to see the birth and death dates of quiltmakers routinely listed with their names, and in the case of migrants, the county as well as the state of their origin.
For purposes of folklore and material culture studies, this book offers opportunities to study: the transmission and circulation of expressive culture in the form of quilt styles (in conjunction with other regional quilt studies); the participation of elites in the production of vernacular expressive culture; and the intersection of vernacular and popular influences in expressive culture.
Work Cited
Laury, Jean Ray, and California Heritage Quilt Project. 1990. Ho for California! Pioneer Women and Their Quilts. New York: E.P. Dutton.
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[Review length: 1322 words • Review posted on September 24, 2013]