A couple from the University of Michigan is travelling across South Africa documenting the history of quilts from bygone eras.
Marsha Macdowell and Kurt Dewhurst visited Grahamstown last weekend to see the 1820 Settlers quilt collection at the Albany Museum.
A couple from the University of Michigan is travelling across South Africa documenting the history of quilts from bygone eras.
Marsha Macdowell and Kurt Dewhurst visited Grahamstown last weekend to see the 1820 Settlers quilt collection at the Albany Museum.
Once all the quilts are documented Macdowell and Dewhurst will set up a contract between the museum and the Quilt Index website, where the histories of these quilts will be made available to researchers.
There is much more to a quilt than a few pieces of material. It is an intricate pattern of strategically placed pieces of material that in itself holds a wealth of historical evidence.
The oldest quilt in the Albany Museum is one that was made by Elizabeth Marsden and dates back to the 1820s.
It uses the traditional hexagonally shaped squares and, according to Albany Museum curator Fleur Way-Jones, it may have taken many months to make.
The quilt is incomplete with the paper templates still attached to the back. Night time was the only time the women could spare to stitch the quilts, which meant spending hours working by candlelight.
Most of the quilts in the Albany Museum date back to the 1800s when the settlers arrived in Grahamstown. A particular quilt has been in the Pike family for almost two centuries.
It is believed that Sarah Pike, the daughter of William Pike, made the quilt while on board a ship to South Africa in 1820.
According to Margie Smith, this quilt has been in her family since then. As the years progressed, the quilt was lended to Albany Museum until 1960. At this point Smith’s mother-in-law bequeathed the quilt to her.
Now, 190 years since it was made, the quilt lies on a bed in the Smith’s home in Riebeek East. Quilts do not only look extravagant and serve as a means to keep warm.
By analysing an old quilt, it is possible to determine the economic situation of the family that it comes from. It is also an indication of the type of fabrics people used to make their clothes.
In those years, quilt-making was a necessity. ‘When people made dresses, they used the left-over cloth to make bedcloths,” says Way-Jones. She says that these days quilt-making has become a hobby.
It has become more about the decorative, artistic and thematic aspects of quilt-making. The quilts that can be seen in the Albany Museum carry family histories in their stitchings. If only these quilts could talk, imagine the stories hey would tell.
