QUILT INDEX RECORD
2-33-47
Where are the records for this quilt housed?
Signature Quilt Pilot Project
Who documented this quilt?
Signature Quilt Project Public Submission
Signature Quilt Pilot Project Number:
Quilts of Tennessee
This is a:
Finished quilt
Quilt's title:
Brownsville, Tennessee Fundraising Quilt
How wide is the quilt?
78 inches
How long is the quilt?
90 inches
What color is the quilt?
Black; Yellow
Type of inscription:
Date; Multiple Names; Place
Describe the type of inscription:
Circuit of Methodist Churches
What is inscribed on the quilt?
Wreath 4-A Center: "Brownsvill Ct 1937"/Ruth Hay 20 Tags (one name per tag in script) Mrs. Allen Marie Thornton Jessie Waller Mary Ann Thorton Aileen Taylor Hattie Thornton Richard Thornton Elizabeth Thornton Bill Thornton David Gene Taylor George Thornton Elizabeth Moses(?) Fannie Thornton Joe Thornton Bessie Coppedge Ruth Thornton Matilda Taylor Ella Taylor Herbert Thornton Mamie Ross
What is the date inscribed on the quilt?
1937
Method used to make the inscription:
Embroidery
Location of inscription:
multiple locations
Time period:
1930-1949
Date estimated by an antique dealer, quilt historian or appraiser:
1937
Further information concerning dates:
Based on the embroidered date, one would assume that represented the time period when the fundraising project was underway and the quilt completed.
Describe the quilt's layout:
Block pattern
Fiber types used to make the quilt top:
Cotton
Fabric styles used in the quilt top:
Solid/plain
Piecing techniques used to make the quilt top:
Hand Piecing; Machine Piecing
Embellishment techniques used to make the quilt top:
Embroidery
Describe the techniques used to make the quilt top:
The quilt has rounded corners and a scalloped border. On three sides, a hand-pieced "ice cream cone" border in yellow and black triangles. The quilt is tied. It has five tiny French knots are at the corners of the quilt blocks. They may be more decorative than useful. The fundraising wreath designs made of name tags are unusual.
Quilt top made by:
Mann, Mary
Where the quilt was made, city:
Brownsville
Where the quilt was made, county:
Haywood
Where the quilt was made, state:
Tennessee
Where the quilt was made, country:
United States
Describe anything about the history of the quilt that wasn't already recorded in a previous field:
The quilt was given to the Methodist minister, whose wife and daughter eventually inherited the quilt. When the family retired to East Tennessee, the quilt came with them. An antique dealer acquired the quilt in Knoxville. She gave the quilt to the current owner because she thought it would make an interesting quilt research project.
Why was the quilt made?
Fundraising
Describe the source of the pattern:
Original to maker
Related items such as diaries, obituaries, wills, household inventories, or pictures of the quiltmaker:
Photograph of Mary Mann exists. For more information, see: Waldvogel, Merikay Soft Covers for Hard Times: Quiltmaking and the Great Depression (Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press, 1990), 60-61. Part of the traveling exhibit: "Soft Covers for Hard Times" travelling exhibit in 1990-1992.
Quilt owner's name:
Merikay Waldvogel
Quilt owner's city:
Knoxville
Quilt owner's state:
Tennessee
Quilt owner's country:
United States
Any other notes or stories about the quiltmaker:
Mary Mann was born in 1873 and died in 1937. She was Methodist, born in rural West Tennessee in the United States.
Access and copyright information:
Restricted
Cite this Quilt
Mann, Mar. Brownsville, Tennessee Fundraising Quilt. 1930-1949. From Signature Quilt Pilot Project, Signature Quilt Project Public Submission. Published in The Quilt Index, https://quiltindex.org/view/?type=fullrec&kid=2-33-47. Accessed: 03/28/24
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