Recently Loyce Braun opened a box that was lurking in a closet in the Costume Room and unearthed a beautiful handmade quilt with a handwritten note. We are always surprised when we discover new treasures tucked away in the recesses of The Ebell and wonder how many more objects will come to light in this manner. Suzi Click researched the quilt and Denise Parga researched its provenance. Here are their findings:
Connecting the Dots – Denise Parga
Attached to the quilt was a handwritten note in faded ink. “Patch work quilt made by Mrs. Charles Stevens (Susan Dillon) of St. Louis, Missouri. Donated by Mrs. Garner A. Beckett. Made during Civil War days.”
Was it possible that The Ebell was the proud owner of a Civil War era quilt? I decided to research the maker of the quilt. My inner internet sleuth got to work.
Many keystrokes later, I discovered the tombstone of a Susan F. Dillon Stevens of St. Louis, Missouri. The likelihood that this was the woman who made the quilt is very high, especially when I discovered her connection to the donor, as I explain below. Susan Dillon was born in 1826 in Missouri and died in 1918 in St. Louis, Missouri at the age of 92. She would have been 35 years old at the start of the Civil War.
Next, I decided to research the donor of the quilt, Mrs. Garner A. Beckett. Garner Arthur Beckett was the founding board chairman of Claremont Men’s College. He died in Beverly Hills in 1974 at the age of 82. According to his obituary, he was survived by his wife, Adele S. Beckett. Could this woman be the donor of the quilt? According to her obituary, her full name was Adele Stevens Beckett. She was born in Illinois in 1901 and died in San Diego in 1995. Her maiden name was Stevens, the same as the quilt maker’s married name. A Red Cross honoree, Adele S. Beckett is listed in her obituary as being active in The Ebell.
All the connections having been made, it was now Suzi Click’s turn to analyze the quilt.
The Log Cabin Barn Raising quilt – Suzi Click
Our research indicates that this quilt is a Log Cabin pattern, and the variation is called “Barn Raising”. You can use a rectangle, triangle or hexagon as the center of the pattern. There are several variations of this geometric Log Cabin style which is composed of many blocks. Each block has a square center with at least 4 layers of rectangular strips (or “logs”) alternating around the center, most often alternating light color and dark colors for a nice contrast.
In 1863 Log Cabin quilts became very popular to help raise funds for the Union Army during the American Civil War and were associated with the presidential campaign of Abraham Lincoln in 1864. During his campaign he emphasized his being born and growing up in a log cabin in order to identify with the average American and early pioneer spirit: the taming of the wild frontier and achieving the American Dream.
The center of each block was often red to symbolize the hearth or fireplace of the cabin. The quilt in our collection follows this convention. Sometimes the center was yellow to symbolize the light coming in the window with the light and dark strips emphasizing the shadows. Some myths even say that during the Civil War Log Cabin quilts with a black center would be hung from clotheslines of safe houses on the Underground Railroad.
These quilts continued to be very popular as our nation was nearing the year of its centennial in 1876.
Another fascinating idea is that the Log Cabin pattern is very similar to the woven pattern in wrappings of Egyptian mummies especially between 30 BC and 395 A.D., the Roman period. In 1897 an astute book editor even suggested it be called the “Mummy pattern” or “Egyptian patchwork” as this was a time when the British museums were consolidating the Egyptian artifacts in their collections.
General history of quilting is filled with myths about frugality and resourcefulness so many people believe the early American quilters only made quilts from their leftover clothing scraps, making do with the little they had. Of course, some quilters did work this way, and these were called “scrap quilts” but store-bought fabric was fairly cheap and easy to come by even in America’s early days.
It appears that the quilt in our collection is a mix of velvets, cottons and silks similar to those used in men’s ties. It is also a mix of many different solid and patterned textiles, so it probably was made as a scrap quilt. And this type of quilt with so many different types and weights of fabrics was very difficult to stitch on top of, so the stitching is only in the sewing of the small pieces together then attached to a muslin or similar foundation.
About 1875, a “calico craze” inspired a new fashion for cotton log cabins contrasting dark prints and light shirtings. Foundation backings were no longer necessary and by the beginning of the 20th century quilt makers seamed logs with a conventional running stitch. Log Cabin style kept pace as color and fabric fashions changed. As we moved into the 20th century, shirtings in mourning gray, indigo, and claret along with plaids were fabrics that quilters were using to make Log Cabin blocks. The 1930’s introduced pastels for a totally different look.
If you ask quilters to name their top three quilt blocks, the versatile Log Cabin block almost always makes their lists. Other variations of Log Cabin are Pineapple, Sunshine and Shadow, Streak of Lightning, Straight Furrow, Chevron and Straight Set: also, Courthouse Steps and twisted and curved versions. Instead of a center square, you can also use a rectangle, triangle or hexagon as the center.
We hope to be able to hang this quilt in our Historic Collections room so that all the members and guests can see this truly historic work of art.
