QUILT INDEX RECORD

33-29-55

Description of quilt:

Historic USA

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.

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:

042

This is a:

Finished quilt

Quilt's title:

Historic America

How wide is the quilt?

75 inches

How long is the quilt?

93 inches

What color is the quilt?

Brown; Cream; Red; White

Time period:

1930-1949

When was the quilt finished?

1933

Describe the quilt's layout:

Medallion or framed center

Subject of the quilt:

USA History and Presidents

Fiber types used to make the quilt top:

Cotton

Piecing techniques used to make the quilt top:

Hand Piecing

Applique techniques used to make the quilt top:

Hand Applique

Embellishment techniques used to make the quilt top:

Embroidery; Painting

Quilt top made by:

Normann, Fanny and Charles

Where the quilt was made, county:

Burnet

Where the quilt was made, state:

Texas (TX)

Where the quilt was made, country:

United States

Why was the quilt made?

Art or personal expression; Challenge or Contest entry

Quilt is presently used as:

Museum collection

Where did the maker get their materials?

Purchased new

Where did the maker find their pattern?

Original to maker

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

According to Fanny Normann (who wrote to Karey Bresenhan in 1986), "We married in '28--just prior to the drop-out depression--while Mr. Normann was teaching art and doing reproductions at Bradford Paint Company on Ninth and Colorado in Austin. He was a sensitive, experimental traveler, trying to become quickly American after having arried in Minnesota in '22, at age 19, from Norway. He was making his way on a day-to-day basis with an extreme proficiency in fine art. He sometimes managed to do as many as three Old Master's reproductions in a day at three dollars each for which 'his employer' might easily obtain fifty dollars each. Yet nine dollars a day . . . was a better than average wage in '28. When Sears offered $1,000 first prize for best quilt at Chicago's Exposition, we hopped-to with a determination to win that, regarless! Mr. Normann put his best expertise to work on a design and procedure, and we stitched away, eighteen hours a day for three months, by the light of a derosene lamp after the sun went down--the two of us at my father's farm in Burnet County, with a baby daughter to care for on the side. At last, we had finished! Just six weeks after FDR's first inaugural. "Tony Kutalek, builder of fine furnishings for the elite of Austin, insisted that we bring the quilt down at the first possible moment and let Austin see it. We must conquer Austin first, high style! Even Governor Miriam A. Ferguson was invited to the showing. And the Statesman reporter dared to say this could be the New Deal that could make it for Artist Normann. We had to win! But we didn't. Somehow our quilt was barred from entering the contest we'd made it for--maybe because Sears and Company had other fine art in mind when they offered the prize to their customers."

Contests entered:

This quilt was made for the 1933 Sears Quilt Contest, but was not entered.

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

Merikay Waldvogel and Barbara Brackman. Patchwork Souvenirs of the 1933 World's Fair (Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press, 1993), 72-74.

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

News photo in scrapbook (Collection of Wilene Smith)

Ownership of this quilt is:

Public Museum, Library or Institution

Quilt owner's name:

Star of the Republic Museum, Washington, TX

Quilt owner's city:

Washington

Quilt owner's state:

Texas (TX)

Quilt owner's country:

United States

Quiltmaker's gender:

Male

Quiltmaker's birth date:

c. 1903

In which kind of environment did the quiltmaker live?

Rural

Quiltmaker's county:

Burnet

Quiltmaker's state:

Texas (TX)

Quiltmaker's country:

United States

Access and copyright information:

Restricted

Copyright holder:

Merikay Waldvogel