Circa 1890-1910
Possibly made in Pennsylvania
Jonathan Holstein Collection, 2003.003.0041

Rainbow Stripes was made by E.S. Reitz, possibly in Pennsylvania, circa 1890-1910. Part of the International Quilt Museum’s Jonathan Holstein Collection, it was first displayed in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 1971 exhibition, Abstract Design in American Quilts. Widely credited with bringing art world attention to quilts, the exhibition’s catalog featured this quilt on its cover.

Holstein and his co-curator Gail van der Hoof, identified this quilt as visually similar to work by Kenneth Noland and other Color Field painters. Later, this quilt appeared in Holstein’s book Abstract Design in American Quilts: A Biography of an Exhibition.

This quilt is also included in Amish Quilts: Crafting an American Icon by Janneken Smucker, an alumna of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Textiles, Merchandising & Fashion Design program and a former IQM graduate assistant.