Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum
From QuiltIndex
The Folk Art Museum offers changing exhibitions of American folk art from its permanent holdings and museum loan shows.
Current exhibition
Material Witnesses: Quilts and Their Makers
Material Witnesses: Quilts and Their Makers features textiles made as close as Virginia and as far away as the Polynesian Islands. Colonial Williamsburg curators have uncovered the stories of the past through the study and research of these quilts and coverlets, some of which were created as early as the 1830s.
Like the hieroglyphics of Ancient Egypt, quilts can tell us a lot about the past and the people who created them. Sometimes the meanings are obvious, while other textiles reveal their tales more quietly, their stories teased out only through determined research into the genealogical roots of the makers.
About the Exhibit
- Includes 11 quilts, the earliest of which is dated 1835
- Includes 3 woven coverlets, the earliest of which is dated 1834
- Includes 1 embroidered coverlet
- Exhibit closes in April of 2012
The exhibit is funded by Mary and Clinton Gilliland of Menlo Park, Calif., through the Turner Gilliland Family Fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
