QUILT INDEX RECORD

33-29-27

Description of quilt:

The Lincoln Quilt, made from an Anne Orr pattern, won first place in the Memphis Region.

Essay:

The 1933 Sears National Quilt Contest was announced in January 1933 with a deadline of May 15, 1933. Over 24,000 quilts were entered at local Sears stores or sent to one of 10 regional mail order houses. Quilts were judged at each site with the top three winners moving onto the next round. Finally just 30 quilts reached the final judging held at the Sears Pavilion on the 1933 Chicago World's Fair site. Anne Orr was one of the final round judges. Her needlework column in the January 1933 Good Housekeeping Magazine featured several quilt pattern designs that eventually found their way to the final round of judging. This is one of them. Others were: Autumn Leaves (see #022 and # ) and Iris (see #085) Inez Ward received $210 for winning first place in the Memphis regional round.

Where are the records for this quilt housed?

Merikay Waldvogel Legacy Project

Who documented this quilt?

Merikay Waldvogel Legacy Project; Sears Quilt Contest 1933 Chicago World's Fair

Merikay Waldvogel Legacy Project Number:

061

Person filling out this form is:

Quiltmaker

How did the quiltmaker participate in the creation of the quilt?

Made entire quilt

If you are the quilt owner, how did you acquire this quilt?

Made the quilt

Who helped you fill out the form?

Brackman (1983)

This is a:

Finished quilt

Quilt's title:

Lincoln's Favorite Quilt

Names for quilt's pattern in common use:

The Lincoln Quilt

What color is the quilt?

Pink; White

Overall color scheme:

Two color; Light or pastel colors

Time period:

1930-1949

When was the quilt started?

1933

When was the quilt finished?

1933

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

Applique techniques used to make the quilt top:

Hand Applique

How are the layers held together?

Hand quilting

Quilting designs used, overall motifs:

Grid/crosshatch; Outline

Quilting designs used, background fills:

Grid/crosshatch

Quilt top made by:

Ward, Inez

Quilted by:

Ward, Inez

Where the quilt was made, city:

Horse Cave

Where the quilt was made, state:

Kentucky (KY)

Where the quilt was made, country:

United States

How was this quilt acquired?

Inheritance

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

In 2007, Inez Ward died. It is assumed the quilt was passed on to her son Louis Ward Jr.

Why was the quilt made?

Challenge or Contest entry

Quilt is presently used as:

Keepsake/memento

Where did the maker get their materials?

Purchased new

Where did the maker find their pattern?

Commercial/Published source: Pattern

Commercial name of the pattern for the top:

Anne Orr Studio (Nashville, TN)

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

The quiltmaker said she borrowed this pattern from a friend.

Exhibitions where this quilt was displayed:

This quilt was exhibited in the Sears Pavilion during the summer of 1933 at the world's fair site in downtown Chicago. In 1934, the world's fair opened for a second summer and Sears Roebuck & Co. decided to call back the top 10 regional winners. This quilt was displayed in that exhibit.

Contests entered:

Sears National Quilt Contest, 1933 Chicago World's Fair.

Publications (including web sites) where this quilt or maker was featured:

Merikay Waldvogel Soft Covers for Hard Times: Quiltmaking and the Great Depression (Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press, 1990), 44-45. Merikay Waldvogel and Barbara Brackman. Patchwork Souvenirs of the 1933 World's Fair (Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press, 1993), p. 97.

Related items such as diaries, obituaries, wills, household inventories, or pictures of the quiltmaker:

Blue Ribbon (Memphis Region) in collection of family. Letter of Congratulations (dated June 15, 1933) from Sears Roebuck & Co. (Memphis Region) General Manager W. L. Heroyd to Mrs. Louis Ward in collection of the quiltmaker's family. Letter (June 13, 1933) from contest judge Jacqueline Hall to Inez Ward in collection of family. Memphis, TN June 13, 1933 My dear Mrs. Ward: It was my privilege and pleasure to help judge the Sears-Roebuck quilt contest recently held. All three judges agreed in your quilt for first place and there were 862 quilts, you know. You have every reason to feel happy and justly proud over your winning. Had I known while judging that yours was a Kentucky quilt, you would have perhaps been even more sure of the first place for the quilt. I happen to be a Kentuckian and a graduate of K. U. My first thought when I examined your quilt was, if you would make one for someone and what you would charge for doing so. I know the price for making one exactly like yours would be considerable but there are other good patterns less tedious to make that would please me. If you are interested in anything of the kind, you may write me sometime whether I can afford a quilt or not. Sincerely yours, (Miss) Jacqueline Hall Photo of quilt on display in 1934 at the Sears Pavilion is on p. 97 of Patchwork Souvenirs of the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. Obituary published in Glasgow, KY newspaper and online December 15, 2007: HORSE CAVE--Inex Melloan Ward, 96, passed away Thursday, Dec. 13, 207, at N.H.C. Healthcare in Glasgow (KY) She was a Hart county native, member of Green's Chapel Church of Christ, a 1927 graduate of Memorial School and a member of the girls basketball team. Her favorite hobbies include quilting, needlepoint and rug braiding. A quilt she made was entered in the Sears & Robuck [sic] contest at the 1933 Worlds Fair in Chicago and won awards and recognition in the Sears catalog. She was preceded in death by her parents, Walker Smith Melloan and Nettie Crain Melloan, and her husband, Louis Ward in 1982. funeral service will be conducted at 1 p.m. Monday, Dec. 17, 2007 . . . burial in the Horse Cave Municipal Cemetery.

Ownership of this quilt is:

Private

Quilt owner's country:

United States

Quiltmaker's maiden name:

Moelloan

Quiltmaker's gender:

Female

Quiltmaker's birth date:

05-08-1911

Quiltmaker's date and place of death:

12-13-2007

In which kind of environment did the quiltmaker live?

Rural

Quiltmaker's spouse's/spouses' and /or partner's/partners' name(s):

Ward, Louis

Quiltmaker's spouse's/spouses' and/or partner's/partners' occupation:

Worked for the State of Kentucky and Farming

Quiltmaker's county:

Hart

Quiltmaker's city:

Horse Cave

Quiltmaker's state:

Kentucky (KY)

Quiltmaker's country:

United States

Estimated number of quilts made by this quiltmaker:

1-5 quilts

Any other notes or stories about the quiltmaker:

Inez Ward lived her entire life in Horse Cave, Kentucky. At age seventeen, she married Louis Ward. Her husband worked for the state of Kentucky, but Inez's father wanted him to work on the family farm. Although her husband had not done farm work before, he agreed. When Inez received the news that she had won the first place Memphis regional prize of two hundred dollars in the Sears National Quilt Contest, her husband and father were plowing out in the cornfield. "I remember I ran out to them and told them. They were so excited. They brought the team to the house and decided that was enough work for the day." Inez had drawn off the pattern for her prize winning quilt from a friend's pattern. She cut the templates out of heavy paper. It was her first "fancy" quilt. (Interview of Inez Ward by Barbara Brackman in 1983) When Brackman asked what she did with the prize money, she said "We'd been married since 1928. We just didn't have anything. My husband was working on the farm and I said I'd love to have a baby. We'd probably have starved if we weren't living with my folks." "I just liked the quilt. I just decided to enter it. I didn't think anything about winning." "I won $210. Back then it was a log of many. I have just one son. I didn't make any more quilts." She told Brackman, that Sears sent her a wooden sewing cabinet as a thank-you gift when she sent her quilt to the 1934 exhibit.

Who photographed this quilt?

Louis Ward Jr.

Access and copyright information:

Restricted

Copyright holder:

Louis Ward Jr.