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Collection
Heritage Center Collection
Object ID
G.77.09
Date Range
c. 1800-1820
  1 image  
Collection
Heritage Center Collection
Description
Upholstered wingback commode chair has four turned Sheraton legs. Has replacement of original soiled handsewn homespun linen (remnants in this file), now an orange fabric with potted and vining flower design. Solid pinewood seat under cushion has center hole with fitted removable wooden disc.
This chair was from the Pownall home at Gap, where it was used by Dickinson Gorsuch, Maryland slaveholder, during his recovery from wounds sustained during the Christiana Riot of Sept. 11, 1851. His father and two others were killed during the skirmish at the home of freedman William Parker, and Dickinson was transported to the Pownall home for recovery. William Parker later published his story in the "Atlantic Monthly" in 1866, making it highly publicized.
This incident "is an important example of the struggle over the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act and the escalating tension between the North and the South. This act gave slave owners broad powers to recapture runaway slaves". (ExplorePAhistory.com)
Polaroid photos of chair before re-upholstery, in file.
Likely Lancaster or Chester Co.
Provenance
Provenance: Chair owned by the Pownall family & given in 1973 to the Lancaster County Historical Society by Mrs. Levi Pownall of Lancashire Hall (569-7279).
It was initially loaned to the Heritage Center (# L.77.9 and # 161.64.80) but soon donated to HCLC. Board minutes of Dec. 8, 1975 include Richard F. Smith's Museum Committee report noting a donation of a "Sheraton armed wing chair commode, used by the Pownall home in nursing Dickinson Gorsuch following Christiana Riot in 1851." Later unsigned note (Bruce Shoemaker?) states John Aungst of LCHS was consulted & chair was removed 11/9/84 from list on LCHS loan form, settling an apparent question of ownership.
Date Range
c. 1800-1820
Year Range From
1800
Year Range To
1820
Last Owner
Levi Pownall family of Gap
Storage Location
LancasterHistory, Lancaster, PA
Storage Room
DAC
Storage Wall
East Wall
Storage Shelf
Upper Shelf
People
Gorsuch, Dickinson
Gorsuch, Edward
Parker, William
Pownall, Levi
Subject
African Americans--History
Free Black people
Slaveholders--Pennsylvania--Lancaster County
Slavery--Pennsylvania--Lancaster County
Search Terms
Chairs
Christiana Resistance
Enslaved persons
Free persons of color
Persons of color
Slaveholders
Slavery
Object Name
Chair, Commode
Oither Names
Chair, Wing
Material
Wood, Fabric
Height (cm)
119.38
Height (ft)
3.9166666667
Height (in)
47
Width (cm)
78.74
Width (ft)
2.5833333333
Width (in)
31
Condition
Good
Condition Date
2017-07-25
Condition Notes
Reupholstered. Minor wear in fabric; loose stitching, especially on proper right side.
Repaired and reupholstered gratis, April 1980, by The Upholstery Center of Lititz, (Mr. & Mrs. Paul Paes).
Object ID
G.77.09
Credit
Heritage Center Collection, Gift of LCHS
Accession Number
G.77.09
Images
Less detail
Collection
Heritage Center Collection
Object ID
G.86.05
Date Range
1830-1860
  1 image  
Collection
Heritage Center Collection
Description
Pieced quilt of silks, cotton batting, glazed cotton back, cut in 2 halves, made by Quaker Deborah Simmons Coates, wife of Lindley Coates (1794-1856). Has 19 horizontal bands of dress silks (many produced by Harmonist Community) in alternating triangles arranged in Birds in the Air or Flying Geese pattern using the template method. Large triangles of varying patterns alternate with large triangles with 3 smaller appliqued triangles of contrasting patterns. Colors are browns, tans, beiges, electric and royal blue, peach and green. Each quilt half has a green silk binding on the three outside edges, and tan silk on the inner vertical cut edge. Quilting patterns are clamshell, diamond, cross in a square and diagonals.
At quilt center is a cream-colored triangle with an abolitionist stamp depicting a kneeling enslaved Black male in chains over the words: "Deliver me from the oppression/ of man." This stamped triangle was cut in two when quilt was divided; image now hidden by modern binding. According to Cuesta Benberry research, this image of a kneeling enslaved person originated with the English ceramic firm of Wedgwood in the late 1700s. See items 08.242 and 42.76.11 in the collectiosn of Metropolitan Museum of Art for seals with a similar motif. The Wedgwood family were ardent abolitionists, decorating various ceramics with this image, resulting in its rapid adoption by American anti-slavery groups. Used in many forms and media over the years, it remains the logo of the still-existing Pennsylvania Abolition Society and appears on organization's official publications.
Lindley and Deborah Coates, of West Grove, Chester Co., married there on 12/16/1819 but lived near Christiana in Sadsbury Twp., Lancaster Co. They attended Sadsbury Friends Meeting House near Christiana. Ardent abolitionists, their home was what is now designated station #5 on the Underground Railway. Lindley became President of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1840, before William Lloyd Garrison. Deborah Coates became a Hicksite Quaker minister according to historian Beverly Wilson Palmer. Hicksites were the more radical Quakers, named after leader Elias Hicks.
Provenance
Quilt passed to son Simmons (1821-1862) & wife Emeline Jackson. (Deborah Coates lived w/ widow Emeline on her Chester Co. farm (Evergreen Hall in West Grove) for many years following Simmon's 1862 death. See census records). Descent to their daughter Elizabeth Jackson Coates who married Marriott Brosius, U.S. congressman from Lancaster. The quilt was then divided between their two daughters, donor's maternal grandmother Graceanna Brosius Biddle and her sister Gertrude Coho Reinhartson. The two halves were then reunited when given to donor, Marjorie Ayars Laidman. Deborah S. Coates was donor's great great great grandmother.
Date Range
1830-1860
Year Range From
1830
Year Range To
1860
Made By
Coates, Deborah Simmons, 1801-1888
Storage Location
LancasterHistory, Lancaster, PA
Storage Room
DAC
Storage Wall
West Wall
Storage Cabinet
Unit 32
People
Coates, Deborah T. Simmons
Coates, Lindley
Subcategory
Bedding
Subject
Abolitionists
African Americans--History
Quilts
Slavery
Slavery--Pennsylvania
Search Terms
Abolitionists
Quilts
Slavery
Object Name
Quilt
Material
Cotton, Silk
Height (in)
89
Width (in)
96.5
Condition
Good
Condition Date
2016-05-02
Condition Notes
Overall good condition. Two halves of quilt (with recent inside binding on cut edges) are "mounted" on cotton muslin, side-by-side. Silks show significant deterioration -- cracking, splitting and abrasion -- with some losses. Binding also has deterioration with some losses. (See 1985-86 condition report by conservator Linnea Davis.)
Documented in Quilt Harvest #448-B (records in Archives).
Object ID
G.86.05
Place of Origin
Sadsbury Twp.
Credit
Gift of Marjorie A. Laidman, Heritage Center Collection
Accession Number
G.86.05
Images
Less detail