We received many replies to our Call for Papers, letting us choose a series of five lectures which both fit the theme and dovetailed each other nicely, spanning the early 19th century through the Depression Era. We were also honored that several historians at the top of their fields offered to present their research. Added to the DAR Museum’s reputation for an excellent quilt collection and for putting on worthwhile symposia, this meant our event would be a big draw, and in fact, the symposium sold out within a few weeks of tickets going on sale.
The symposium began with Lynne Zacek Bassett, curator of numerous exhibits and editor of exhibit catalogs including “Pieces of American History: Connecticut Quilts” currently on view at the Connecticut Historical Society “Homefront and Battlefield: Quilts and Context in the Civil War.” Lynne discussed friendship quilts, a major 19th-century quilt trend, in the context of the Romantic era’s emphasis on sentiment, and women’s culture of friendship. She also debunked the popular notion that these quilts’ use of inked inscriptions grew out of technological developments in better quality inks and new steel nib pens. For example, a generation before inscribing quilts became popular, women had been decorating and inscribing purses, such as the one shown here in the Museum collection, a gift of friendship from Caroline Odlin to “F. Rogers,” complete with Gothic castle ruin on the opposite side of the inscription.