1890-1899

Janet E. Finley Collection of Quilt History Photographs

Colby, Kansas, United States

Cabinet Card c. 1885-1892
Photographer: E.E. Van Epps, Colby, Kansas
Size: 4.25" x 6.5"

Twins, Ray and May, are posed in the portrait studio of E. E. Van Epps, who operated out of Oberlin, Colby, and Hoxie, Kansas. Twins are rare in my collection, and rarer still are twins in a wicker twin stroller. The elaborate Crazy quilt contains silks and velvets, and appears to have been brought to the photography studio by their mother as it is large and propped in such a way as to display the quilt as much as the twins.

-- With permission of the publisher, excerpted from Janet E. Finley, Quilts in EveryDay Life 1855-1955 (Schiffer Publishing, 2012).