Object Details
- Gay, Pocahontas Virginia
- Description
- Named the “The Pocahontas Quilt” by the family of the maker, Pocahontas Virginia Gay, it is a wool counterpane that displays both her design and needlework skills. The thirty-six 11-inch blocks are appliquéd with motifs cut mainly from wool fabrics. These are further embellished with embroidery, silk fabrics, ribbon, and details in pencil or ink.
- Pocahontas based her motifs on popular illustrations of sentimental vignettes and Southern heroes, as well as the Victor dog trademark adopted in 1901 by the Victor Talking Machine Company. Proud to be a seventh-generation descendant of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, she included a likeness of the Indian princess as she appears in a 17th-century engraving frequently reproduced in genealogies.
- Pocahontas Gay, or “Aunt Poca” as she was known to family, was born in Virginia on September 5, 1831. She was the daughter of Neil Buchanan Gay and his wife Martha Talley. She never married and remained connected to the family home, Mill Farm in Fluvanna County, Va. She died on October 14,1922.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of Mrs. Edward McGarvey
- 1900-1905
- ID Number
- TE.T11694
- accession number
- 225103
- catalog number
- T11694
- Object Name
- quilt
- Physical Description
- fabric: wool, silk, cotton (overall material)
- thread: cotton, silk, wool (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 68 in x 67 in; 173 cm x 169 cm
- See more items in
- Home and Community Life: Textiles
- Quilts
- Textiles
- Domestic Furnishings
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Quilting
- Record ID
- nmah_556380
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a3-b975-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
