BIBLE QUILT

Harriet Powers was born a slave near Athens, Georgia, on October 29, 1837. She exhibited this quilt at the Athens Cotton Fair of 1886.

“I had never seen an original design, and never a living creature portrayed in patchwork, until the year 1886, when there was held in Athens, Georgia, a ‘Cotton-Fair,’… There was a large accumulation farm products-the largest potatoes, tallest cotton stalk, biggest water-melon! Best display of pickles and preserves made by exhibitor! Best display of seeds and all the attractions usual to such occasions, and in one corner there hung a quilt-which ‘captured my eye’… The scenes on the quilt were biblical and I was fascinated.”

-Jennie Smith, previous owner of quilt

Harriet Powers

Information and images courtesy of National History Museum.