What a difference a week makes!
Last week I was distributing quilts to tornado survivors, and visiting
neighborhoods that were wiped off the map by the big twister.
This weekend I am in Washington DC, visiting the DAR Museum, and participating
in the Not
Fade Away conference in Herndon VA. (…and dripping from the heat and
humidity!)
Friday
I had a very special treat. I had an invitation to have a private tour at
the DAR (Daughters of the Revolution)
Museum which is about a block away from the White House. My tour guide was
the curator of the Quilts and Textile department, and I felt very lucky to have
a private session in the archives (temperature and humidity controlled room in
the basement) to view several historic quilts that are being prepared for an
exhibit in 2014.
Alden also took me upstairs to see the beautiful architecture of the huge library,
and the individual state rooms with special state quilts. She also gave me a
lengthy explanation of the process of preparing garments for the current
costume exhibit "Fashioning
the New Woman: 1890 – 1925".
We had lunch next door in the Red Cross building, and talked some more about
how to date garments and textiles. She cut her textile dating chops when she
was an intern at the Smithsonian, and now she can look at a historic quilt or
vintage garment, and guess the year it was made. We discussed how every year or
two there would be a change in the fashions, that would make it easy to date
the garment by the sleeve shape, bustle, draping, etc. What were trends 100-200
years ago, have become history.
I pointed out that the trends we are making today, will also be documented
textile history some day in the future. We talked about how we should be
documenting quilts today, so they will be understood 100 years from now. She
also told me that laser-printed labels and photos in quilts are already
starting to fade, and it is such a shame that information is fast disappearing.
She complained about quilts that had initials instead of full names sewn on the
back. She complained about quilts that said "Aunt Bessie's Quilt"
instead of the full name.
So my message for all of you is – make sure you sign your quilts with permanent
ink or stitching so there will be no doubt as to the quilt's maker, and the
year it was made. Someone in the future will treasure your quilt and be
fascinated with the history of the quilt you've constructed so lovingly and
carefully.
My mom and I hired a genealogy detective to research our distant ancestors, and
she recently informed us that we'd be eligible to join the DAR. So the timing
of this museum visit was just perfect! We have the documentation of a
"patriot" ancestor who was in the army during the Revolution, which
came as a surprise!
