by Alissa King

Created on: December 27, 2006   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

So much of Early American History is presented from a masculine perspective. The greater number of opportunities and higher literacy rate among men in colonial times through the second world war, along with the pervading sense throughout early history that a woman's place was in the home raising children, resulted in a textual and pictorial history created overwhelmingly by men. A feminine historical perspective has been delicately preserved, however, in the form of antique quilts.

Quilting may not be as direct a visual reference as photography, but with just a little patience and a good eye for detail a whole history is revealed through the examination of antique quilts. The language of quilting is a symbolic language, and it consists of details that an interested mind can learn easily. This language is communicated through fabric, pattern, size, dye color and basic design. Quilts are as varied as paintings in a museum and once you learn to reveal the language of the quilt then it becomes possible to piece together the era and history of the quilt maker. For instance, once you have discerned that the size, fabric and dye of a quilt depicts a mid 1800's work of art, you can go about putting together the circumstance of the maker based on pattern choice, fabric, and their own imaginative touches. Was she fanciful? Was she mourning? Did the work take a long time or was it finished quickly? Are the stitches uniform, which would indicate machine work of a single sewer, or are they slightly different, revealing the labors of many? Are the fabrics rich or coarse? Was this the work of a woman of luxury or a working woman, creating a quilt for utility and warmth?

Though quilting goes back before recorded history in some corners of the world, as evidenced by early Chinese and Egyptian quilted artifacts, quilting was not that prevalent in America until the mid to late 1700's. Quilting required the resources of time and fabric, both of which were in short supply for colonial women. American quilts from the colonial era were most likely either sewn by upper class women with access to imported fabrics, or imported as finished works from Europe where they were originally made. European influence on quilts of this time-frame are shown in the popularity of medallion quilts: quilts with several borders layered around a single picture or pattern which was the central theme of the work. Piecing and block patterns became popular between 1795 and the turn of the century among American

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