Nelson Art Gallery: Quilts of African American Women

In the introductory piece of literature at the entrance of the Nelson Art Gallery, Patricia A. Turner, Ph. D. (and author of Crafted Lives: Stories and Studies of African American Quilters) writes that “New fabric was a rare luxury reserved for garments; they reused clothing, bedding, and flour sacks for their quilts.” She is, of course, referring to the process of quilt-making by (in this case) African American women. However, upon briefly glancing around the room, very few of the quilts appear to be made out of any of these materials. Closer inspection yields that the quilts are in fact made out of scraps of material. Meticulously thought out and manicured scraps… Cotton was used in the majority of the quilts, along with corduroy and some silk. Some denim from of old Levi’s blue jeans was also used in some of the quilts; how much of a bummer would it be to sleep on a jeans pocket… You’d probably have great morning-face lines…

During my visit, one particular quilt did appear to be “authentic,” made completely out of reused materials for the sole purpose of keeping its owners warm. A look at the title, designers, and history of the piece confirmed my belief: titled “Black Man Burden,” and made circa 19th century by Hannah Wilcox, a sharecropper, and Lucy Wilcox, a slave, it’s made out of “workmen’s cotton twill pants, raw cotton batting, and feed sacks.” The info on “Black Man Burden” also says that it is 81 inches by 74 inches, but the quilt is hardly a rectangle. If anything, it is more of a trapezoid.

On one side of the quilt, there is no real the pattern or rhythm; bits and pieces of whatever material was at hand appear to be stitched haphazardly together. The other side, while better, is still not something one would expect to see on a four-poster bed; it is composed of vertical strips six to eight inches wide divided by color, mostly. Again though, this particular quilt was clearly not made with its aesthetic appeal as a priority. One could easily imagine it covering a fieldworker or slave sleeping on a cot.

Even the most beautiful quilts often emphasize the whole over the parts – resulting in the absence of a focal point – and “Black Man Burden,” while not beautiful in the common sense of the word, continues with this tradition. Based on the small rips in the quilt, though, my guess is that the quilt’s point of focus was centered directly underneath*, at least until they hung it up in the Nelson.

*During sleep, in case you didn’t get that…

Side Note: I was unable to copy a picture of this particular quilt online. However, another blogger has a picture because we happened to be blogging about the same exact thing. Bizarre...
Here's the link:
http://de-signandi-natura.blogspot.com/2009/10/african-american-quilting.html