Laurel Horton, An Upcountry Legacy: Mary Black's Family Quilts

The sixteen quilts in Mary Black's collection were made between about 1850 and 1917. Mary's quilts included both revered relics and ordinary patchwork. Over time however, all the quilts grew in importance as reminders of family identity and the reciprocal obligations of kinship. The language and traffic of quilts circulated in the private sphere among women, who recycled dresses, shared patterns, and paid other women to piece and to quilt. Quilts and household heirlooms served to commemorate and reinforce the private, domestic relationships important to women.

Click on each highlighted name to learn more about each family member.