Small Quilts, Big Stories

June 5 – September 22, 2024

This exhibition presents a selection of small quilts, including youth and doll quilts, that encompass 200 years of quilt making in America.  Historic images and related objects exhibited alongside the quilts will explore the evolution of techniques and imagery, but also how quilts are cultural “windows,” that carry messages across time.  Quilts hold their own particular story connected to the people who made them, and as a group document broad shifts in American culture. 

The exhibition will explore these multi-faceted contexts in which quilts were made, including how small quilts reflect changes in society’s attitudes about children. Many of the quilts on view have never been publicly exhibited. The show’s curator, Julie Silber, is one of the world’s most respected American quilt experts and collectors.

Pictured Left:
Central Medallion Doll Quilt
c.1840
Cotton

Pictured Above:
Grandmother’s Flower Garden Doll Quilt
Circa 1930
Cotton