QUILT INDEX RECORD

2-33-52

Where are the records for this quilt housed?

Signature Quilt Pilot Project

Who documented this quilt?

Signature Quilt Project Public Submission

This is a:

Finished quilt

Quilt's title:

Rochester I.O.G.T. (Independent Order of Good Templars)

Names for quilt's pattern in common use:

Fans with Flag

What color is the quilt?

Blue or Navy; Red; White

Type of inscription:

Message; Multiple Names

What is inscribed on the quilt?

Faith, Hope, Charity “Our Field” Rochester Railway Company complete with a trolley Sen-Sen [which are breath mints that were developed here by TB Dunn and Company a perfume dealer] Standard Sewing Machine [None better!] Higgins [with the design of horse with wings Pegasus] JW Martin & Bros. [sold Pianos and Organs on State Street?] Bings Bird Store CW Oster Hershey’s Chocolate *Bicycle & watch is pictured Brewster, Crittenden and Riley (Butter and eggs) Sibley, Lindsay & Gurr Company O’Grady & McAnarnsy Fidelity Bond Holzeland Creamery A shoe depicted with the title “One of Qualtrough’s spring styles” Whipples House Furnishing Establishment Pegas (?) Vehicle Company on East Avenue [lists both Automobiles and Bicycles]

Method used to make the inscription:

Embroidery

Location of inscription:

multiple locations

Describe the quilt's layout:

Block pattern

Where the quilt was made, city:

Rochester

Where the quilt was made, county:

Monroe

Where the quilt was made, state:

New York (NY)

Where the quilt was made, country:

United States

How was this quilt acquired?

Gift

Tell the story of how the quilt was obtained:

Purchased from Mary & Joe Kovel, then donated to Rochester Historical Society.

Describe anything about the history of the quilt that wasn't already recorded in a previous field:

A sister wheel quilt, was made at the same time, both as fundraisers for the Independent Order of Good Templars, (IOGT) Washington Lodge in Rochester. Addie Elliott's letter is referring to this wheel quilt which she sold to the WCTU several years after the fundraising event. The fan quilt was made by a different unknown maker and it disappeared sometime after it was displayed in Sibley's window. It surfaced again over 100 years later in the collection of the Kovels and finally purchased from them and donated to RHS, reuniting the two quilts. It's a great story!

Why was the quilt made?

Challenge or Contest entry; Fundraising

Ownership of this quilt is:

Public Museum, Library or Institution

Quilt owner's name:

Rochester Historical Society

Quilt owner's city:

Rush

Quilt owner's country:

United States

Description of quilt:

The red and white pieced quilt with fan blocks with an American Flag in the center. The border is pieced with the blades of the fans. Outline stitched in each of the blocks are what appear to be a series of 1900 store names and Rochester businesses along with dozens of names of people. This was done mainly with blue thread with a few highlights in red.

Essay:

Rochester July 11, 1950 Dear Friends Rochester Historical Society I have been requested to write to you about the quilt that I sold to the W.C.T.U. I will say that it was started in the year 1900 while I was living at the restaurant at 95 E. Main St. I belonged to a lodge called the good Templar I.O.G.T. Independent or of good Templar. It met every Friday night. We got short of money to pay our rent so it was proposed by the members to start to raise some money. Each member went out and worked and got names for to put on an advertising quilt at so much a name or whatever they could give. There was two of us that went at the head and the one that raised the most money would get the quilt and I got 2 dollars more than the other one so they sayd she got so near the amount that I had that they would give her one also. She worked and got hers done then it was first on display in the Sibley window. But as I was in business I had not as much time to work on mine then there came a change, we went out of business and was in other kinds of work so the quilt came to a standstill for a while. And when I got at liberty, I went to work oat it again I got it set together and Sibley donated the lining for it. I wrote to someone from the W.C.T.U. and they came over to a friend’s house where I was staying and I had the quilt with me and they liked it and bought it & gave me 65 dollars for it. It went on display over to the Presbyterian Church at a convention for 3 days, but I will say before this the Sunday school class to the firs Nazarene church consented to tie it and finish it, which they did. I wanted very much to get a picture of the quilt but never did I got an artist to draw some pictures of some of the ads I had one that was the street car or company gave me $5.00 which was the most any one gave me but I had nothing to show they gave me any thing sop I wanted the picture to show what I did with the money it was in the middle of the quilt and can be seen. Also there is the all Seeing Eye in the middle. I call it the all Seeing Eye over all there are two features I would want to show-then down in the corner is the grand army badge of James A. Hard. He will be 109 years old the 25th of the month that I want to show. I will write a few things & I don’t know if you can read my writing very well as IU write without any glasses and am past 87 years old. I fell over one year & hurt my back and limbs and am not able to walk so am confined to my bed. I think that I have written all that is of any good so will close. From a friend & well wishes. May God bless the cause that you are in for it is badly needed the world is growing worse instead of better pray for the new one that is soon going over maybe they will never come back their families is left I sorrow. From Mrs. Addie Elliot Rochester, N.Y.

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