Oral Histories
From QuiltIndex
The Alliance for American Quilts (AAQ) supports several major oral history projects.
- Boxes Under the Bed is an AAQ initiative to collect and document ephemera related to the history of quilting, which may include oral histories, as well as patterns, clippings, manuscripts, catalogues, and correspondence.
- Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories
- http://www.allianceforamericanquilts.org/qsos/
- Transcripts and photographs online, audio tapes archived at Library of Congress.
Quilt Treasures is a partnership project between AAQ and the Michigan State University Museum and MATRIX: Center for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Online at MSU.
- http://www.allianceforamericanquilts.org/treasures/
- Web-portraits online, Video tapes archived at Michigan State University Museum.
- Individuals currently documented as Quilt Treasures include:
- Virginia Avery
- Cuesta Benberry
- Jinny Beyer
- David and Patricia Crosby, founders of Mississippi Cultural Crossroads
- Joyce Gross, editor and publisher, The Quilt Journal (1977-1987)
- Jean Ray Laury
- Bonnie Leman, founder of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine
- Yvonne Porcella
- Bets Ramsey, co-director of the documentation project Quilts of Tennessee
- Hystercine Rankin
- Mary Schafer
- Merry Silber
- Woodard and Greenstein
American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
- Quilts and Quiltmaking in America presents 181 segments from recorded interviews with quiltmakers and 410 graphic images (prints, positive transparencies, and negatives) from two collections in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress: the Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project and the Lands' End All-American Quilt Contest Collection. The images of the quilts convey the range of contemporary quiltmaking styles in the United States, while the recorded interview segments provide information on the quiltmakers and their work within the context of their lives and region and a more in-depth portrait of quiltmaking in daily life.
Columbus Museum of Art's Quiltmaking in the 21st Century
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- Featured quilters include:
- Deb Anderson
- Sue Cavanaugh
- Rise Nagin
- Judy Rush
- Arturo Sandoval
- Rita Steffenson
- Featured quilters include:
Folkstreams
- Quilts in Women's Lives
- http://www.folkstreams.net/film,37
- Features footage of Lucy Hilty, an important teacher of quilters
- Kathleen Ware, Quiltmaker
Michigan State University Museum
- Repository for oral histories generated by the Quilt Treasures Project, African American Quiltmaking in Michigan project, 4-H History project, and To Honor and Comfort: Native Quilting Traditions project. Also contains over a hundred oral histories conducted by students, staff, contracted specialists, and volunteers as part of classroom projects, programs on quiltmaking featured at the museum’s annual folklife festivals, and other exhibition related research projects, including one on Mary Schafer.
Pennsylvania Historical Societies
- Adams County Quilt Project
- Berks County Quilt Harvest
- Chester County (Pennsylvania) Historical Society
- This organization has some audiotapes from the late 1990s to 2000-2008. ::http://www.chestercohistorical.org
- Goschenhoppen Quilt Round Up, Goschenhoppen Folklife Museum and Library
- The Heritage Center Museum of Lancaster County--Lancaster County Quilt Harvest
- Oral Traditions Project (15 Pennsylvania counties), Union County Historical Society
Quilting Stories of East Texas
- Quilting Stories of East Texas documents quilts and quilters from the east Texas area, basically the premise is "if quilts could talk this is what they would say about themselves." The quilts on the web site are in the process of being migrated into a database for easier searching. Quilting Stories of East Texas is also in the process of streaming the video better and making PDF transcripts. Here is an example of one that has video:
The Quilts of Gee's Bend
