Object Details
- unknown
- Description
- Friends of Mary Elizabeth Hitchcock Seamans created this quilt of fifty-six 9½-inch blocks, possibly on the occasion of her marriage to Stephen Harris Seamans in 1864, or possibly before they left for Wisconsin. All but 8 of the blocks contain either embroidered or inked names of friends and family.
- The blocks are made of printed and white cottons in the “Friendship Chain,” or “Album,” pattern. The border has machine-stitched initials “MES,” a back-stitched date “May 4th,” and the hand quilted year “1864.” One block has a tiny pair of embroidered mittens which according to the family represented a suitor Mary had rejected; she had “given him the mitten,” a phrase popular in the 19th century.
- This Album Quilt is one of three quilts donated from the same family.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of Mrs. Margaret Seamans Birch
- 1864
- 1869
- ID Number
- TE.T13542
- catalog number
- T13542
- accession number
- 257115
- Object Name
- quilt
- Physical Description
- fabric, cotton (overall material)
- thread, cotton, silk (overall material)
- filling, cotton (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 87 in x 83 in; 221 cm x 210 cm
- place made
- United States
- See more items in
- Home and Community Life: Textiles
- Textiles
- Domestic Furnishings
- Quilts
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Quilting
- Record ID
- nmah_556437
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a3-bd61-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
