Schoolhouse quilt

Unknown

ca. 1900–1920 · Cotton · The American Wing

The first decades of the twentieth century saw a renewed interest in quiltmaking. This resurgence was influenced by both the nostalgia of the Colonial Revival, and after 1929, by the advent of the Great Depression, when making a quilt from leftover scraps of fabric seemed a particularly appealing act of thriftiness. A design that is still made today, the schoolhouse pattern first became popular in the 1890s, in the wake of remembrances of the disappearing one-room “little red schoolhouse”. This particular example is likely from between 1900 and 1920, and includes fine detailing in the chain-stitch embroidered mullions on the windows and doors of each schoolhouse.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1900–1920

Medium

Cotton

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. William Mitchell Jennings Jr. Gift, 2014