The Quilt Index

Contributors

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Mary A. Barton Collection
Donated to the State of Iowa between 1988 and 2000, the Mary A. Barton Collection documents the life and times of 19th century and early 20th century quilting women. Starting with the oldest quilt in the collection, a LeMoyne Star quilt (c. 1840), and continuing through the decades until about 1920, the Barton Collection presents a microcosm of quilting activity. Her assemblage of quilting periodicals and materials illustrates how quilting fell in and out of favor, changing back-and-forth from a necessary skill to a leisure-time activity in accordance with the times

The Barton Collection is also a diverse resource for any student of domestic history. It was not just the quilts themselves that fascinated Mrs. Barton - she wanted to know how quilts and quilting fit in the daily lives of 19th and 20th century women. The books, periodicals, clippings and actual fabrics in her collection document the creation of quilts from the making of the cloth to the washing of the finished quilt. In her collection Mary Barton tried to encompass the entire "women's sphere" of the time period. Not just interested in textiles, she assembled a world-class collection of materials and documentation representing the influences brought o bear on 19th and early 20th century women. These materials help us understand the quilting woman - what she read, what she wore, her choices in fabric and pattern, the demands of her time and how those demands changed with lifestyle improvements.

The Mary A. Barton Collection includes, in part:

• 26 finished quilts;
• 32 quilt tops;
• 111 panels (fabric motifs and blocks taken from unstable quilts and basted to panels of muslin.  These panels were used to show pattern and fabric choices, and how use affects fabrics);
• 134 loose quilt blocks;
• 15 notebooks of quilt blocks and fabric swatches;
• 30 shoeboxes of annotated fabric samples;
• 1000+ books and periodicals 1850-1980 relating to quilting, home arts, needlecraft, and fashion.

Iowa Quilt Research Project
Established in 1987 to register and photograph pre-1925 quilts, the Iowa Quilt Research Project documented over 2500 quilts in a little over 2 years.  As with other Quilt Documentation Projects, the Iowa collection of data provides another aspect of quilt research, one based on local considerations but with national overtones.  Opened for settlement in 1838 and achieving statehood in 1846, Iowa has been a destination for generations of immigrants.  The documentation collected by the IQRP provides insight into the every-day lives of the people, particularly women, who settled into this state.  Each quilt in the Project represents a starting point for research into immigration, settlement, and important life passages such as marriage, birth and death.  Each quilt represents a family who chose to spend time in Iowa.

The stories of how these quilts moved in and out of Iowa illustrates the highly mobile nature of middle-to-late 19th and early 20th century culture.  This documentation provides insight into the lives of local and regional women, an often unexplored avenue for historical inquiry.  The quilts registered in the IQRP are points of reference in telling the life stories of the women who made the quilts, cared for them, moved them and ultimately passed the quilts on.

Credits and Acknowledgements
State Historical Society of Iowa Work Team:
Project Manager: Jodi Evans, Museum Registrar
Digitization: Kelley Rouchka, Sarah Carlson
Data Entry: Linda Mould

Thanks and Acknowledgements: The volunteers for the Iowa Quilt Research Project; staff and volunteers at the Grout Museum of History and Science (Waterloo, Iowa); Des Moines Area Quilters Guild; Friends and family of Mary A. Barton.

Funding: the Mary A. Barton Collection and the Iowa Quilt Research Project of the State Historical Society of Iowa were added to the Quilt Index through funding from NEH.