“Nothing has taken a stronger hold on the women —
Crazy quilts have engulfed us.”
- Dorcas magazine, 1884

Arising in the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century, the high-style crazy quilt trend incorporated motifs from Japanese art and decor, English embroidery, and fairyland, among others. Like many textiles, however, the legacy of the crazy quilt is complicated. Women were urged by magazines to create crazy quilts, the more elaborate the better, yet they were mocked in newspapers and periodicals for doing so.  

The Industrial Revolution made silks cheaper and more readily available, which meant that many more women were able to take part in the crazy quilt trend. However, the cultural changes that accompanied this massive economic shift had impacts that are also reflected within these quilts. Women created crazy quilts in an era when male medical “experts” were widely pathologizing women’s normal physical and emotional experiences as hysteria and madness. 

This tension is evident in the pieces shared here. Unlike the generally light-colored, symmetrical block and applique quilts popular in the preceding decades, crazy quilts are characterized by irregularity in piecing, dark and saturated tones, and often odd embellishments. In an era obsessed with female hysteria, it is no surprise that crazy quilts were the order of the day.