The Pottinger Quilt Collection was developed in the 1970s and 1980s by David Pottinger, a Michigan based plastics manufacturer whose interest in Amish quilts was so great he eventually moved to the tiny town of Honeyville in northern Indiana to operate the Honeyville General Store.

The Pottinger Quilt Collection was developed in the 1970s and 1980s by David Pottinger, a Michigan based plastics manufacturer whose interest in Amish quilts was so great he eventually moved to the tiny town of Honeyville in northern Indiana to operate the Honeyville General Store. Together with local Amish contacts Amos D. and Bertha Bontrager, he visited Amish homes across the region, buying quilts directly from the families who had made or owned them. For quilts, his aim was to show the widest possible variety produced in the area and to document each quilt with as much background information as possible. Today, the collection at the Indiana State Museum numbers 443 crib and full-sized quilts, the majority with detailed information on maker, date, for whom the quilt was made, etc. The quilts are primarily old-style, dating from 1869 to 1985, with the majority from between 1900 and 1940. This documentation makes the collection one of the most important in the world for researchers. Besides quilts, Pottinger collected Amish clothing, toys, dolls, furniture and household items; some 3500 objects in all, which are also part of the collection at the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites. The quilts portion of the collection have been included in many exhibitions and in books such as the recent Amish Quilts by Janneken Smucker and Amish Quilts and the Welsh Connection by Dorothy Osler.

Pottinger labeled the quilt backs with muslin labels, using his numbering system and descriptions of the quilts and their provenance.


Pottinger, David. Quilts From the Indiana Amish: A Regional Collection, Museum of American Folk Art, 1983.
McLary, Kathleen, Pottinger, David. Amish Style: Clothing, Home Furnishings, Toys, Dolls, and Quilts, Indiana University Press, 1993.