Quilt, Star pattern

Eliza Smith Barber

ca. 1850–1900 · Cotton · The American Wing

This is a blue and white cotton quilt with a pattern of five large eight-pointed stars, one in the center and one at each corner. Each star is made up of both large and small triangles of indigo-blue fabric printed with white stars. The backing is plain white woven cotton. There is a layer of cotton batting between the top and back layers The large white areas between the stars are quilted with wreaths with a square grid at their centers. Square-grid quilting also appears in the white border, and straight-line quilting is used in the pieced blocks. The quilt is hand pieced and hand quilted. When the quilt entered the museum’s collection from the donors, a note attached to it stated: Quilt made by/ Eliza Smith Barber/ Mother of/ Henrietta Eleanor Barber Robinson. Eliza Smith Barber (1818-?) was the donors’ great-great-grandmother. She was married to George Barber (n.d.s.) and, in addition to daughters Henrietta and Margaret, the couple had a son named Ohio Columbus Barber (1841-1920), who was the proprietor of the Barber Match Company of Akron. In 1880, according to the census, Eliza was widowed and still living in Akron with her mother, Susan Welty.

Artist

Eliza Smith Barber

Date

ca. 1850–1900

Medium

Cotton

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of Frances E. Vieta, Jona C. Vieta and Col. Paul A. Vieta, 2004