Announcement of Indiana State Museum’s Quilt Collection Artifact Database
Thursday, November 19th, 2009Letter to the Editor:
Hello, My name is Traci Cromwell and I am the Cultural History Collections Manager at the Indiana State Museum. I am trying to get the word out about the museum’s quilt collection that is available for research online in the artifact collection database. See Indiana State Museum online database. Currently we have close to 600 historic quilts in the collection online that date from 1810-2000. Highlights from the online quilt collection include:
* The largest collection of Indiana Amish quilts (perhaps Midwestern Amish too) and the best provenanced. Anyone doing research on Amish quilts should visit our site to see them. Includes examples dated in the quilting from 1869 to 1985.
* The Indiania (sic) Fancy Quilt, titled, dated and signed by Clarissa Rohrbach Strong of Delaware County in 1854. Wonderful documentation combined with excellent condition and visually striking design.
* Dogwood quilt designed by Marie Webster and made by Mary Ann Sipe. Webster was the author of the first American book on quilts and was a famous quilt designer from Marion, Indiana. Her work appeared in the Ladies’ Home Journal.
* Storybook appliqué quilt made by Martha Jungclaus in 1929-1937, following the children’s book illustrations of Fern Bissel Peat, an Indiana native.
* Indiana State quilt with all counties made in the county of origin for Hoosier Celebration 88, a state-wide celebration.
* The Lincoln campaign ribbon quilt. Made by 13-year old Maggie Frentz of New Albany in 1876, incorporates campaign ribbons of all candidates for President and Vice President in the 1860 election, including both Lincoln and Douglas.
Please let me know if you have any questions about the museum’s online database that I can answer. We would very much appreciate you posting our online database link to your wonderful quilt website.
Thank You-Traci
Traci Cromwell
Cultural History Collections Manager
Indiana State Museum
650 West Washington 46204-2725
phone: 317-234-1719
fax: 317-234-1724
tcromwell@dnr.IN.gov

