Reconciliation Quilt
Lucinda Ward Honstain and/or Emma Honstain Bingham
Brooklyn, New York
November 18, 1867
Cotton; hand pieced, appliqued and embroidered, hand quilted 
Ardis and Robert James Collection, IQM 2001.011.0001

The "Reconciliation Quilt” was made by Lucinda Ward Honstain of Brooklyn, New York in 1867, likely with the assistance of her daughter Emma Bingham. Imagery in this unique album quilt highlights the racial, social and economic diversity of the years immediately following the end of the Civil War, as well as images of Lucinda’s Brooklyn neighborhood. 

Jeff Davis and Daughter 
A block reading “Jeff Davis and Daughter,” portrays the former president of the Confederate States of America standing with one of his daughters.  On May 13, 1867, in a gesture of reconciliation, a northern judge released Jefferson Davis on bail from Virginia’s Fort Monroe. Northerners were divided over the decision, but many felt releasing Davis was an important step in uniting the North and South. Was Lucinda hoping to do her part to promote reconciliation? 

Brawl in the Fifteenth Ward: The Honstain Family War Renewed
The detailed imagery of Honstain’s quilt suggests a serene life, with images of her Brooklyn home and patriotic portraits of her husband and son-in-law. Reality was far from calm, however. Lucinda and her husband were the topic of numerous newspaper articles, including a report of a brawl in the street in front of her home after she and her husband separated. A year later they divorced, though Lucinda referred to herself as a widow in later U.S. census records.  

Honstain’s Military Service…or Disservice? 
John Honstain served twice during the Civil War. Family records indicate that, seven months after enlisting in April, 1861, he was arrested and court-martialed, after cheating other soldiers out of money intended for their uniforms. He was allowed to resign. He enlisted again in 1862.  In 1863, serving as a Lieutenant in the 132nd Regiment of the New York Volunteers, he ventured behind enemy lines and was captured. He told a story of a daring escape, but upon his return he again faced charges for desertion. His was dishonorably discharged on May 31, 1865.

Elephants, Camels and Walruses… in New York City?
Honstain’s quilt holds a variety of animals, many of them typically found in a farmyard. But she also included exotic animals such as elephants, camels, and walruses.  Where would she have encountered them?  Perhaps at the American Museum…or in Central Park! 
Showman P.T. Barnum opened the American Museum in New York City in 1841. The museum was decorated with huge pictures to draw in crowds eager to see exotic animals.  The museum’s lecture hall featured performances involving whales, hippos, monkeys, snakes, and even a kangaroo. The Central Park Menagerie opened officially in 1865, but hundreds of animals, including camels and alligators, had already been donated to the collection.  

From 1833 to 1933
Emma Leonhard
Virginia, Illinois
1933
Cotton; Hand and machine pieced, hand appliqued and embroidered, hand quilted
Ardis and Robert James Collection, IQM 1997.007.0368

This original design by Emma Mae Leonhard was made to enter in the Sears National Quilt Contest, held during the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. The Fair's theme, "A Century of Progress," commemorated Chicago's 100th Anniversary. Leonhard’s themed quilt illustrates 100 years of advancement through architecture - from a small log cabin to a tall skyscraper - and the chronology of women's fashions. In the fine quilting stitches at the top and bottom of the quilt, she depicts the evolution of transportation.  

The 1933 Sears, Roebuck and Company’s Century of Progress Quilt contest wasn’t the first quilt contest in the U.S., but it was the largest. More than 24,000 quilts were submitted in hopes of winning the $1000.00 prize (equivalent to more than $21,000 today). A special $200.00 Bonus Prize was offered for quilts that focused on the Chicago’s World Fair theme of A Century of Progress.  None of the themed quilts won awards. In fact, another maker wrote “One of the judges (was) heard to state that she would not give three minutes of her time to consider a Century of Progress design.”

Friendship Block 
Mercy Jane Bancroft Blair (1825 -1900)
South Apalachin, New York
Circa 1855-1863 
Cotton; hand pieced, hand quilted
Ardis and Robert James Collection, IQM 1997.007.0852

Friends and neighbors inscribed their names on Mercy Jane Blair’s quilt. A note that accompanied the quilt when it arrived as a part of the James Collection included family names and the location of the quilt’s origin.  Fabrics helped to give it an approximate date. Descendants of Mercy Jane searched the original family homestead and discovered diaries she kept from 1859-1900 that gave amazing details of her life and her quilt. We learned that Mercy Jane worked as an independent seamstress who traveled from home to home, staying anywhere from half a day to several weeks cutting, fitting and sewing dresses for her clients. And we learn that she made a special quilt. 

Mercy Jane Makes a Quilt
Mercy Jane Blair carefully preserved leftover fabrics from garments she sewed for friends and neighbors. Her diary contains notes indicating she saved them to make the Friendship quilt we see here. For example, on February 7, 1859, Mercy Jane writes that she received twenty-five cents for making a brown polka-dotted dress for Mrs. Elnina Brown. Mrs. Brown’s signed block is composed of brown polka-dotted fabric. 

Mercy Jane Is Engaged
Only a single entry on October 29, 1863 mentions Mercy Jane’s engagement to Addison Blair.  She writes: “Mr. Blair was over at Sister Moe[’]s of course.  I was there to[o] and consented to become his wife, how strange that seems.” Mercy Jane no longer sewed for others after her marriage, but continued her entrepreneurial ways by selling butter and loaning money to neighbors at an eight percent interest rate. She quickly paid off the mortgage on the family farm.

My Crazy Dream 
Mary M. Hernandred Ricard (1838-1915)
Made in Boston and Haverhill, Massachusetts
Dated 1877-1912
Silk; hand pieced and embroidered, no quilting
Ardis and Robert James Collection, IQM 1997.007.0541

Crazy quilts, like this magnificent quilt titled “My Crazy Dream,” became a popular trend in quilting due to concurrent social, cultural, and aesthetic events and trends.  One major influence was the introduction of Japanese art and culture, particularly as interpreted by Westerners.  
Crazy quilts were often used as ornamental throws. They were most frequently fashioned out of fine silk taffetas, satins, brocades and velvets. Mary M. Hernandred Ricard began her piece in 1877 and finished the top in 1912. There is no information as to why the piece was never completed; basting stitches in the border are still visible and no backing was applied.  

A Career as an Elocutionist?
Mary M. Hernandred Ricard and her husband appear to have had a comfortable life.  They are listed in the 1860 census as running a boarding house for textile mill workers in Manchester, New Hampshire. The family moved late in the 1860s to 22 Winter Street in Haverhill, Massachusetts, where Hubert prospered as a manufacturer and a retailer. Scholar Barbara Brackman discovered a very specific talent of Mary’s – she was a dramatic elocutionist, a specialized kind of public speaker. An article described one evening: “Mme. Ricard gave some fine readings…Her “make-up” in personating General Butler was perfect, and alone worth the price of admission…The accompaniments of Miss Carrie Ricard [Mary’s daughter] were an important factor in the success of the evening…” 

Japanese Influence found in Crazy Quilts
After Japan opened for trade in 1853, Western fascination with “Japanese Taste” grew rapidly, expanding to even greater popularity after Japan’s participation in the 1876 Centennial Exhibition.  Makers often incorporated Japanese motifs in their crazy quilts.  Look for fans, butterflies and an elaborate spiderweb, including a three-dimensional spider and a trapped fly in "My Crazy Dream"!
Though it is often thought the term “Crazy quilt” refers to the somewhat lunatic visual extravagance of these pieces, it probably came from the term “crazed” in Japanese ceramics, where the surface’s glaze is cracked into an irregular pattern.

Basket of Flowers
Maker unidentified
United States
Circa 1880-1900
Cotton; hand pieced and appliqued, hand quilted
Ardis and Robert James Collection, IQM 2009.039.0038

This Basket of Flowers quilt follows the trend of red and green applique popular in the middle and late decades of the nineteenth century, but the addition of bright cheddar orange baskets makes it unique and vibrant. Ardis James describes the impact quilts had on her when selecting them: ”A quilt has to speak to me. It hits me in the chest and says ‘take me.’  Each is special and unique.” The Basket of Flowers quilt was featured on the cover of Quilt Digest 5, which included an article about the James Collection by author and historian Michael Kile. 

Red and Green All Over
The earliest known example of the red and green (and orange) applique genre is a dated 1839 quilt in the IQM collection. The popularity of this color combination, which is seen in thousands of nineteenth century quilts, is due in part to the development of new dyeing processes that made possible the vivid green and brilliant red printed fabrics.  Though we don’t know where this quilt was made, the color combination was most popular in Pennsylvania.