1880-1889

Janet E. Finley Collection of Quilt History Photographs

Ironton, Ohio, United States

Cabinet Card c. 1885-1889
Photographer: Thornton Barrette, Ironton, Ohio
Size: 4.25" x 6.5"

The photograh was taken by Irontown, Ohio, photographer, Thornton Barrette, who lavishly advertised on the card's beautiful backmark that his artistic photography studio specialized in the "instantaneous portraits of children." Diane Gagel, author of Ohio Photographers 1839-1900, has researched and found that Thornton Barrette was born in 1852 in Greenup County, Kentucky. He was a photographer in Ironton, on the corner of Second and Center Streets, from 1885-1889. Barrette also had a riverboat photography studio moored on the Ohio River at Russell, Kentucky, and known as the Barrette Portrait Company. Labeled as the "Mathew Brady of Ohio Riverboat Photographers," Barrette also collected photographs of riverboats. Thornton died in 1930 in Volusia County, Florida. The Crazy quilt most likely belonged to the baby's mother, as she would have been proud to display her fine needlework. The Crazy quilt contains an unusual fringed border.

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