Book Review: American Quilts in the Modern Age, 1870 -1940
Review by By George W. Neubert
“American Quilts in the Modern Age, 1870–1940”
Co-editors: Patricia Cox Crews and Marin F. Hanson
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
American Quilts in the Modern Age, 1870–1940” is an important recent publication produced by the International Quilt Study Center (IQSC) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln that examines quilt making in the United States from the Civil War to World War II from both an artistic and historic perspective. This extraordinarily impressive and beautifully designed large book provides valued insights and understanding of American history, art and culture, as well as the contributions of women to American society and the impact and influence of technological advances on textile, particularly quilts.
The noted Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich has remarked, “Much of social history of early America has been lost to us precisely because women were expected to use needles rather than pens.” “American Quilts in the Modern Age, 1870–1940,” part of the multivolume series of the IQSC collections, covers a swath of that lost history and shows some of America’s treasured cultural material as it was pieced and stitched into place. The IQSC is uniquely qualified to lead this undertaking due to the depth and size of its holdings and collections, its commitment to quality interdisciplinary research affiliation with a research university that provides institutional support, and a highly qualified and dedicated professional staff.
Authored and co-edited by Patricia Crews, director of the IQSC’s Museum, and Marin F. Hanson, its curator of exhibitions, the book provides a strong curatorial organizational vision that beautifully illustrates a full array of styles and designs that dominated the quilt aesthetics during this period and documents seven decades of American quilt making from pieced-block design to crazy style to Colonial revival examples, as well as one-of-a-kind creations. In addition, nine contributing authors provide critical information and personal expertise regarding the modern and anti-modern tensions that persist throughout this era of America’s coming of age. Their essays also address textile technology and cultural context of the times in which the quilts were created with an eye to the role that industrialization and modernization played in the evolution of techniques, materials and design. The book’s content and format, with full-color photographs of over 587 quilts, offers a valuable visual and tactile understanding of American culture and society bridging the transition from traditional folk culture to the age of mass production and consumption. The IQSC’s Museum houses one of the most important and largest public-owned quilt collection in the world, and since its inception, the mission of the IQSC has been to advance quilt study by making the quilt collection accessible through publications, exhibitions and related public and educational programming. “American Quilts in the Modern Age, 1870–1940” is an important achievement and milestone in fulfilling the center’s mission. This publication and its scholarship establishes a research model for the emerging field of quilt studies. It also establishes the IQSC as a definitive leader in the field and will remain a valuable resource for scholars, collectors and quilt enthusiasts.
Robert Shaw wrote in “Quilts: A Living Tradition” that “as more professional historians and art scholars begin to look at quilts seriously, a clear understanding of their enormous importance to the story of American life, social history and artistic achievement will emerge.”
Have you read this book? Get your copy today.
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