American Quilts in the Modern Age
1870 – 1940 The International Quilt Study Center Collections

by Marin F Hanson and Patricia Cox Crews



Hardcover: 496 pages
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press (April 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0803220545
ISBN-13: 978-0803220546

“Much of the social history of early America has been lost to us precisely because women were expected to use needles rather than pens.”

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Pulitzer Prize winning historian

I am passionate about history. I will read the history of just about anything, but my two great historical love affairs are with European and British history of the Middle Ages, and with the history of quilts all over the world.

When I saw that this book was due for release I was SO excited. The International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska  is  somewhere I would LOVE to visit. Not only to see the quilts and soak up the amazing amount of information on quilt history that is available to be there, but also to take classes and study.



This museum and study centre is a quilt historian’s nirvana. The website is also WONDERFUL, and has great fun things such as en email that sends you a pic of a quilt from their collection each month, and  a fantastic section which houses a quilting timeline, quilting stories and information about fabrics and making a quilt. It is just fantastic, but be warned you need to look at this when you have time, because you will want to get lost in it!!

 I’ll make it to the museum one day, but in the mean time I can get a little sense of the extraordinary collections housed there from this wonderful book.

This is the most comprehensive book on American quilts ever published. Quilts in the book come from not only the museum’s collection but also the author’s personal collections and some quilts from other museums as well.

The book is split into chapters such as Block Style Quilts, or Pattern and Kit Quilts. The chapters are formatted in the usual way for a quilt book, with a large picture of each quilt and a short description and date of make, and where possible details of the quilt maker. The photography of the over 590 quilts is beautiful, and there are close ups of some quilts included as well as the full-quilt photos. However the thing that is different in this book that I love is the Galleries section at the end of each chapter.
 


There is an overview of each chapter with several pages of variations on the type of quilts discussed in the chapter. As a teacher is it a very useful tool to use when discussing block and quilt styles and layouts with a class.

Certain quilts are accompanied by a more comprehensive story about the maker and her life. A large part of the fascination of old quilts is, for me, the story of the woman with the needle, and so I have found these stories to be fascinating and informative.



Each subject is covered by quilting experts we all know, such as Barbara Brackman, author of Clues in the Calico: A Guide to Identifying and Dating Antique Quilts, Merikay Waldvogel, author of American Quilt Classics, 1800-1980: the Bresler Collection, and Laurel Horton (Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group).

The book covers the quilts in this seven decade period from both an artistic and an historical perspective. There is information from the contributing authors on American history and industrialization, which gives the reader insight into the period in time during which the quilts were being made. We get a sense of life and times of the makers, and the changes that the modernization during the period brought to their lives and their quiltmaking.

This book is one of the best in my library. It is such a treasure trove of information and inspiration. While the price is steep, the quality is just superb and the money is worth every cent.

American Quilts in the Modern Age is available from:

Amazon
International Quilt Study Center Gift Shop
Fishpond
 
Some other books by Patricia Cox Crews: