Lancaster Amish quilt, very non-traditional Bars pattern, made circa 1880. The large scale of the pattern and the diagonally divided corner blocks do not fit within the usual parameters of Amish quiltmaking. It is one of the earliest quilts in this collection.
Top: Plain- and twill-weave wool. Five 10-inch-wide bars in centerfield, 3 of two shades of brown and 2 of turquoise. No inner border except for top and bottom, and these are of different widths. Wide outer border with corner blocks each divided diagonally into two triangles.
Binding: 1" wide light tan fabric, machine-sewn to back and front.
Quilting: Outer border has unusual fan pattern, although not unique (see P02.51.56 and 66). Corner blocks have concentric squares. Inner border & center field is cross-hatched. Two outer brown bars re-quilted (see quilt back).
LABEL: "Although this quilt is a Bars pattern, one of the more common patterns used by Lancaster County Amish makers, it has some unusual features. The diagonally divided corner blocks and fan quilting designs in the outer borders are atypical. Also inner borders appear only on the top and bottom sides and are not equal in width. The use of heavy twill-and plain-weave dark wool fabrics and a simple pattern suggest an early date."
Provenance
Purchased from Stella Rubin of Potomac, MD. Invoice of 5-23-89 is for $12,500.
Extensive reconstruction: Brown fabric of the two outer strips in center and matching fabric of triangles in two bottom corner blocks are all replaced/overlaid by hand piecing, and re-quilted (see back). Original brown fabric in center bar only. Small gray strip applied to checked fabric of back. Same gray fabric used in a section of original binding is a replacement. Some original fabrics show wear & stains; quite fragile. Additional detail in quilt report by Linnea Davis of 1-11-90, in file. Additional condition report/sketch done by volunteer Aug. 2010.
Crazy quilt made by Veretta (Ettie) Lucinda Neel. Crazy quilt blocks are on point and made of pieced and appliqued silks, satins and velvets.Decorated with a variety of cotton, silk and chenille embroidery stitches; tied, not quilted. Contains portions of neckties, hatbands, wedding gowns and other family fabrics."V.L.Neel" is embroidered on center block. Finished with a 4"-wide border. Cotton batting. Back is a silk print of silver bells.
Embroidered initials on quilt are SC (or LC), RM, EK, JMP, L(or S)and R. The date 1885 appears twice as well as a music staff, $, pierced heart, five hand-held fans, two painted swallows, owls, boots, hummingbird, stag's head, butterfly, flowers, anchor, etc.
Provenance
Maker to nephew Thomas Ross Neel to daughter and donor, Marianna Neel Akerman.
Maker was an unmarried woman of Scots-Irish descent and Presbyterian. She made this quilt for her hope chest at age 31, but never married. Donor recalls her great-aunt saying she was "unlucky in love" and pointing out the appliqued heart pierced with a downward-pointing arrow as representative of her broken heart. Ettie's sweetheart chose another for his wife (see label from 1990 exhibit). Ettie lived with her parents, Thomas Ross Neel and Verlinda Stubbs Neel (Fulton Twp.), and after their deaths she lived with the family of her sister, Belvidera Neel Carter (Mrs. Samuel Carter) in Christiana.
Maker kept in storage, in unused condition. Two pieces of the same fabric in the center block are shredded and another light colored fabric, used several times, has some staining.
Object ID
G.03.14.01
Place of Origin
Lancaster County
Role
Quiltmaker
Credit
Gift of Marianna N. Akerman, Heritage Center Collection
Lone Star quilt of cotton prints. Large star of hand pieced diamonds (2" x 4") using 5 prints of pink, blue, red, green and yellow. Set on a ground of a blue print with white & dark blue flecks.
Extensive and elaborate hand quilting includes an undulating corded feather vine at all four sides, a small feather wreath in each corner and large feather wreaths with diamond grid centers fill in around star. Diagonal lines through each diamond of star.
Back is pieced w/ 2 blue calicoes, a floral and a foliate design over stripes.The pink calico binding,1/2" wide, is a print over narrow stripe background. Cotton batting.
Donor claimed maker was Amanda Metzger Rider (21 Jan 1860 - 21 Dec 1961) of Londonderry Twp., Dauphin County, a Mennonite woman who married John Brinser Rider (1885-1921), a farmer and butcher. Donor has since conceded this is doubtful. See Notes
Unknown -- Doubtful Amanda Metzger Rider was maker
Provenance
Quilt passed from Amanda M. Rider to daughter Fannie Metzger Rider Noll (1888-1973) to her daughter Ethel Rider Noll Albright (b.1910 - still living at St. John's Home in Columbia in 2003) to her daughter, donor Phyllis Ann Albright Hertz (1935- ).
Small cabinet photo of Amanda included with donation, depicts her as a young woman before she joined the Mennonite Church and dressed plain. Photo by Le Rue Lemer of Harrisburg. The Miller family genealogy owned by donor notes Amanda died of a stroke and was buried in Geyers Church Cemetery.
Generally very good but with several brown stains: a cluster of 3 about 15-18" from corner border and binding, one very dark. Another light brown stain in same border near opposite corner. One-inch-long dark liquid stain in one green diamond of inner circl. Blue background print has a regular pattern of light areas caused by original print run. Back has some small dark liquid stains and darkening along fold lines.
Object ID
G.03.32.01
Notes
Cousin of donor, Arlene Huss (Lititz, 717 569 3482) was surprised to see her grandmother's quilt during a quilt presentation 9 Nov 2017. Arlene confided later that her mother, Emma Rider Huss, told her that her mother, Amanda Metzger Rider, only made conforters with scraps of material. She did NOT make fancy quilt like this Lone Star. Arlene has another quilt that used the same fabrics as the Lone Star, but it was given by Amands to daughter Emma but not made by her. This information puts the identity of the maker in serious doubt, with the conclusion that the maker is unknown. She later called her cousin Phyllis, the donor, who conceded she was not certain Amanda made the Lone Star.
Tulip block quilt of cottons. Blocks are set on point with tulip blocks arranged in 4 columns of 5, alternating with plain white blocks.Tulip design has 3 blooms with 4 petals each. Blooms are a red floral print and stems w/ leaves are a green abstract print.Tulip blocks pieced in 7 patches and stem w/ leaves are applique. White borders are 4.75" wide except for 9.5" bottom. Back is white and wraps edges toward front to form narrow binding. Cotton batting separated.
Cumberland County, likely Shippensburg area
Hand quilted with white thread following still-visible pencil lines. Outer borders have an undulating feather interspersed with an 8-petal flower. The tulip blocks have horizontal parallel lines and the white blocks have a feather wreath. All quilting has double lines.
See Provenance & Notes.
Provenance
Letter of 6/5/1948, in file, from donor's great aunt Nannie (Nancy) Foreman Spangler, states the tulip patches were made by donor's great great great Grandmother Culp, being "at least 150 years old" and that she (Nannie) "had them quilted about sixty years ago" (c.1890?). Trish Herr believes the prints used in the tulip blocks are circa 1840s, confirming the story.
Thus, patches were made by the mother of Mary Culp Atherton (1812-1849), she passed to Mary, then to her daughter Ann Margaret Atherton Foreman (1840-1925) to daughter Nannie Foreman Spangler (1859-1951) who had quilt assembled, to grand niece & donor Margaret Wagner Aungst (1918- 2012).
Generally good with some brown scattered stains and a large stained area at middle of left edge. Apparently rarely washed due to still very visible pencil lines. Many seams in piecing are separating. Backing has acid burn on fold lines and section that was folded and likely touching wood of blanket chest.
Object ID
G.08.03.03
Notes
Nancy Foreman was the maternal aunt of donor's father, Marshall Wagner. Printout of digital photo taken by Trish of the Foreman sisters is in this file. Aunt Nannie Foreman Spangler is positioned at two o'clock. They were raised in Shippensburg where their father James K. Foreman was Sheriff. Nannie married Henry Spangler & lived in Phila. where Henry was a professor at U. of Penn. They had one child, also Henry.
Donor states the Culp gr gr gr grandmother who pieced the quilt patches is unknown at present, altho she believes descent went from a great great great grandmother Culp to an Atherton to the Foreman family. (Correct - wrz). Donor may have records or photos in storage, but unlikely to discover soon. (Deceased 2012)
Place of Origin
Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
Credit
Gift of Margaret C. Aungst, Heritage Center Collection
Quilt with lightning pattern, all cottons. Lightning pattern composed of alternating yellow and dark rust-red lightning streaks within an outer border of green (width varies 7"- 7 1/2"). Thin batting. Hand-stitched rolled binding has front green wrapped to back.
Cotton backing is mostly reds and browns in a medium-scale print of diamond shapes within a "grid" of smaller circle shapes, all on a ground of speckled brown. (see scan in file).
Hand-stitched quilting patterns: diagonal lines within the yellow, diamond grid within the red. Border has rope pattern of two twisting 6-strand parts.
Considerable liquid staining/soiling, front and back. Especially evident are dark liquid stains in yellow.
Provenance
Donor states family lore claims quilt was made by Emma & Annie Eshleman, two sisters of his grandfather Jacob Burkholder Eshleman who lived in Ephrata. Both girls died young of TB. The daughters were the two youngest of eleven children born to parents Daniel Eshleman and Mary Burkholder Eshleman. According to Lanc. Mennonite Hist. Society research done by volunteer Ivan B. Leaman, Emma (1864-1888) and Phinnia ("Annie") (1867-1889), the daughters both died young and are buried near their parents in the Groffdale Mennonite Cemetery.
Quilt ended up with Grandfather J.B. Eshleman who manufactured cigars according to the 1890 and 1909 Directories. Donor states he was a tobacco wholesaler. He passed quilt to daughter Mary Catherine Eshleman (married Dr. George Willauer) and then to donor.
Lone Star pattern quilt, all small-scale cotton prints. Star comprised of diamonds using a progression of 12 different prints in green, yellow, blue, pink and red. Star is done on a central field of a pink print. Outer border (5" wide) is a print of yellow flowers on a dark green ground. The 3/8" wide binding is the backing brought forward. This cotton backing is an abstract speckled grid of brown and tan. Thin batting evident.
Quilting patterns, hand-stitched in white, are: perimeter of each small diamond of the star; triangles & squares of the pink center field have unusual floral and foliate motifs, including a large feathery leaf in triangles and a scallop-edged circle filled with grid pattern in corner squares; outer border has undulating vine snaking through a repeating pattern of a large single leaf.
Earl or Ephrata Twp.
Provenance
Provenance: Donor states family lore claims quilt was made by Emma & Annie Eshleman, two sisters of his grandfather Jacob Burkholder Eshleman who lived in Ephrata. Both girls died young of TB. The daughters were the two youngest of eleven children born to parents Daniel Eshleman and Mary Burkholder Eshleman. According to Lanc. Mennonite Hist. Society research done by volunteer Ivan B. Leaman, Emma (1864-1888) and Phinnia ("Annie") (1867-1889), the daughters both died young and are buried near their parents in the Groffdale Mennonite Cemetery.
Quilt ended up with Grandfather J. B. Eshleman who manufactured cigars according to the 1890 and 1909 Directories. Donor states he was a tobacco wholesaler. He passed quilt to daughter Mary Catherine Eshleman (married Dr. George Willauer) and then to donor.
Hole torn in border, 23" from corner, is 1" long on back and 1/4" long in front. Several small brown stains on front and back. Back also darkened along some fold lines. One peach-colored diamond print has mysterious blue mottled stains(?) that likely were present before piecing.
Object ID
G.08.15.03
Role
Quiltmaker
Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Basket of Chips pattern, all-cotton quilt. Thirty-six 8"x8" basket pattern blocks in prints (mostly reds and greens), set on point 6x6, made of 2 eighteen block sets facing eaching other. Alternating blocks are in a black star print. Triple border, 2" each of red, green and red again (in one corner and along side, outside red border in orange, but same print.
Batting is thin cotton. Backing is a navy blue plaid cotton. Binding is same black print as alternating blocks in body of quilt, 1/4" wide.
Quilting is parallel lines over the blocks and borders.
Pinned tag on reverse indicates quilt was documented by the York County Quilt Documentation Project as #W-3-8.
Made in York Springs area, Adams County by Annie Trimmer Spangler (11 October 1850 - 20 September 1911).
Provenance
Made by donor's great-grandmother, Annie Trimmer Spangler, and passed down through son Charles to his daughter Edna Spangler Keefer to daughter and donor Betsy Keefer.
Annie Trimmer married Franklin Spangler (1846-1911) on 5/28/1871 and they had 3 children: two daughters, Hermie and Clennie, and one son Charles. They were likely Lutheran and lived in the York Springs area of Adams County.
Death certificate of Franklin Jacob Spangler records his father as Emanuel Spangler and the maiden name of his mother as "Myers". Baptism of "Jacob Franklin" Spangler notes mother's name was Maria.
Some fading on both sides. Several small spots of brown stains on front. One of the alternating black print blocks, near center, has incipient holes forming.
Object ID
G.09.03.03
Place of Origin
Adams County, Pennsylvania
Role
Quiltmaker
Credit
Gift of Betsy Keefer in memory of the Spangler family quilters, Heritage Center Collection
All-cotton quilt, hand-pieced Baskets pattern with appliqued flowers on off-white ground. Thirty-six 9.5" squares in 6x6 arrangement have baskets of red and green prints set on point with an off-white and green appliqued tulip bud in each. Triple borders are mitered; inner border is 4" off-white, middle is 3.25" red and green zig-zag and outer border is again 3.5" off-white.
Batting is thin cotton and separating. Backing is solid off-white cotton. Binding is back brought forward, 1/4" wide.
Precisely hand-pieced and densely hand-quilted. In each block, quilting follows applique, parallel lines in basket fill, feather cable conforms to basket handle. Feather cable quilting on both off-white borders. On red and green zig-zag is a simple grid.
Made in Latimore or Reading Twp., Adams County, PA by Catherine E. Stoke Wilt (15 October 1843 - 8 August 1910).
Provenance
Made by great-grandmother of donor, Catherine Stoke Wilt, who married James Alfred Wilt and lived in York Springs area. James was a miller at Trostle's Mill in Huntington Twp., Adams Co. Later in life he was a farmer near Hampton in Reading Twp They had a family of 14 children of whom the eighth was Mary who married Charles Spangler (donor's grandparents). Quilt descended to son George, donor's uncle, who presented the quilt to donor as a college graduation gift.
Front has some staining and yellowing. Colors faded. Batting is deteriorating/separating.
Object ID
G.09.03.04
Notes
Note: This quilt is nearly identical to one pictured on the cover of "The Hands That Made Them...Quilts of Adams County, Pennsylvania" by Adams Co. Quilt Documentation Project (see file). Made circa 1875 by members of the Leer family on their farm near York Springs.
James & Catherine Wilt's oldest daughter Sarah Elizabeth (born c. mid-1860s) had a daughter Nora Elizabeth who married Calvin Leer. In any case, this appears to provide an example of pattern sharing based on close proximity and intermarriage.
Appraiser Dawn Heefner notes that this 19th c. quilt pattern of the tulip or rose bud in a basket, may be a design unique to the York Springs area of Adams County. It was not referenced in the principal quilt pattern encyclopedias.
Quilt documented by the York County Quilt Documentation Project, #W-3-2.
Place of Origin
Adams County, Pennsylvania
Adams County, PA
Role
Quiltmaker
Credit
Gift of Betsy Keefer in memory of the Spangler family quilters, Heritage Center Collection
All cotton album quilt of 30 blocks of 12" x 12", each with a different papercut applique done in solid red and green with minor use of a mustard yellow floral print (possibly one of the chrome yellow small-scaled prints used in the 1830-1860 period.( See p. 66 of "Dating Fabrics" by E. J. Trestain.) Most appliques are floral or snowflake designs, but one stands apart, a pair of hands with a pair of scissors.
Surrounding blocks is a 7" wide pieced strip/border of white cotton, decorated with scallop-edged crescent appliques of alternating red and green.
Imaginative quilting includes hearts, cable, floral and foliate motifs. Outer border has parallel slanted lines. Batting is minimal with only tiny clumps remaining.
Attributed to George Evans Howett (31 Dec 1841 - 8 May 1864??) & mother Ann Howett. See Provenance and Notes.
Gatchellville, Fawn Twp.,York Co., Pennsylvania or Pylesville, Harford Co., Maryland
Provenance
Reported provenance of quilt: Howett family to Wright family operating a store in Gatchellville, York Co. Then to the Wright daughter who relocated to Christiana and sold it to Teressa Phillippy Brinton (1893-2002) of Christiana. Teressa wrote down the story and passed quilt and story on to donor, her granddaughter. (See NOTES).
Significant overall fading and wear, esp. evident in red fabric binding and appliques. Minor losses and small holes in binding. More significant holes in red appliques, esp. large hole (1-1.5") in one red scalloped crescent.
Overall light staining; significant dark stain on white outer border near one corner (3" x 0.25") and one small dark stain within centerfield.
Object ID
G.11.03.01
Notes
Written account passed to donor from her step-grandmother Teressa P. Brinton, states that a Civil War soldier, George E. Howett, returned from the war badly wounded to his parents' home (John and Ann Howett). To pass the time until death took him, he cut out quilt patches which his mother Ann Howett appliqued to a white ground to make an album pattern quilt top. Later, since the family needed money to settle an account at the local store, the quilt top was offered in part payment. The store operated by Mr. Wright, was located in Gatchellville, York County, PA (about 9 miles from McCall's Ferry). Mrs. Wright, the wife of the store owner, then had the top made into a quilt for $2.00.
The Wright's daughter Mary eventually moved to Christiana along with the quilt, where she sold it to Teressa Phillippy Brinton, 2nd wife of Maurice Jackson Brinton of Christiana. He was the grandfather of donor. Teressa Brinton (5 Nov 1893 - 13 May 2002) passed quilt on to granddaughter Esther H.M. Power, who then donated quilt along with the story as recorded by her step grandmother.
Copies of military documents given by donor appear to contradict George's return from battle to die at home. The repeated statement is that Howett died May 8,1864, "of wounds rec'd on the battlefield" at Spottsylvania, VA. Does "killed" mean mortally wounded but not yet deceased?
After George's birth in Drumore Twp., the family lived near Pylesville, Harford Co., VA. By 1870 census they were living in Gatchellville, Fawn Twp., York Co. All three locations are in close proximity. Other Howett relatives were living in Fawn Twp.
Credit
Gift of Esther H.M. Power, Heritage Center Collection
All-cotton quilt with four-block appliqued princess feather design on an orange (cheddar cheese color) ground. Center of quilt has a star variation that is also used as the center of each of the four princess feather designs. Each of 4 blocks has alternating feathers of blue and dark rust that radiate out from star. An inner sawtooth border is made of triangles of the same blue and dark rust. Outer border of cheddar is mitered. Quilt corners are rounded. Binding is the same dark rust. Backing is a cotton floral print of red and white flowers on a brown ground. No batting.
Hand quilted in white: Outer border has a bold cable design of ten strands. Center field is a diamond pattern and the feathers are outlined and have a double line quill in center.
The bold colors, particularly the cheddar cheese color, are typical of northern Lancaster County. This quilt is reported to be from the Ephrata area.
Provenance
Ex-collection Mr. and Mrs. David Cunningham and ex-collection Richard Flanders Smith. Purchased by vendor and sold to Heritage Center.
