In March I alerted you to the Baltimore album quilt exhibit that had just opened at the Baltimore Museum of Art. On July 1st, I went to the museum, and I’m waiting to hear from the Rights and Reproductions Coordinator whether or not I can show you images from that exhibit. Meanwhile, I do have photographs I took at the Maryland Historical Society, where they have several of their two dozen Baltimore album quilts on display.
What is a Baltimore album quilt? It is a quilt comprising appliquéd squares, usually quite large squares—16 inches, for example. These quilts are called album quilts because they suggest albums girls and young women kept in which they, their family and friends left autographs, quotations, drawings, pressed flowers, and other mementos. The quilt squares are like album pages. Some include names, verses, and ink drawings. They are unique to Baltimore, made in the mid-19th century, with the most sophisticated examples dating to c. 1850. Over 300 Baltimore album quilts are known today, and since the 1980s when a Baltimore Museum of Art traveling exhibition brought them to public attention, the dealer and auction prices for original quilts compare with those of fine paintings. They are works of art, requiring mastery of many different skills. In fact, they are technical wonders.
Two kinds of appliqué were used in creating the quilt squares—naturalistic, pictorial designs and cut-paper designs, which are often complex, symmetrical patterns.
I’ll show you the photographs I got of some of the quilts in the exhibit. Remember, the lighting was dim and I had to stand some distance away to shoot whole quilts. Hence the dim photographs. This one includes both types of appliqué.
Red and green materials were used extensively (in this and many quilts), in part, at least, because the red fabrics were so expensive (thus desirable) and there were many green prints available. Nineteenth century Baltimore women had unusual access to a wealth of fabrics, both foreign and domestic.
The following shot shows the use of red and green, the use of cut-paper and pictorial motifs, and elaborate designs such as the compotiers of fruit, the basket of flowers, and the memorial to a Baltimorean Mexican war hero in the center. This is a very typical Baltimore album quilt, with frequently seen motifs.
This next one has only pictorial and symbolic images, although the upper left square could have been based on a cut-paper design. The designer of this quilt obviously loved to portray animals.
Some of the quilts, though made in Baltimore or its immediate environs in the mid-19th century, do not fit the strict definition of Baltimore album quilt. This exquisite quilt features broderie perse—designs cut out of printed chintz fabric that have been appliquéd to each square. The sashings and borders are strips of chintz also appliquéd to the ground fabric.
It is amazing work, almost hard to believe; but I saw the original, up close and personal.
Imagine cutting out, then stitching around such intricate details with tiny, invisible stitches.
Here’s a close-up of the border. Everything has been appliquéd to the ombre blue ground.
Some scholars, including the curator, Jennifer Faulds Goldsborough, who wrote the book on the Maryland Historical Society’s Baltimore quilt collection, Lavish Legacies, suggest that the chintz fabrics, which were exorbitantly expensive, inspired the album appliquéd designs. They may have been intended to substitute for unaffordable materials. In any case, many of the Baltimore album motifs are very similar to the chintz designs.
Here are two more atypical quilts in this show. Both feature squares with appliquéd chintz combined with geometric patterns. Chintz appliqué quilt blocks preceded and segued into Baltimore album quilts.
This gorgeous quilt has two borders of chintz strips surrounding large squares with appliquéd chintz that surround rows of tiny square patches bordering the central medallion that includes more squares and triangles with appliquéd chintz.
Here’s a close-up of the lower left corner so that you can see the details in this magnificent quilt. Giraffes were all the rage in Paris at the time. Notice the decorative quilting. One can only guess at the thousands of hours that went into the making of these extraordinary works of art.
Now to show you some of the details of this true Baltimore album quilt.
In the bird motif you can see the artful use of shaded fabric to create dimension. You can get a good look at the outer border as well.
One of the many green prints used in this quilt appears here. The flowers are padded or stuffed, using three layers of different fabrics. The compotier, a frequent motif, is heavily padded and stitched to create the design. Sawtooth sashing and borders are common.
Although you can barely see it, there is an inked inscription in the center of this block, very often seen in these album quilts. The highlights on the flowers were achieved by stitching. There is stitching, too, around the buds. Something new.
Although this is a terrible photograph (the block was high up on the quilt, that’s my excuse), I wanted to show you the ruching used to make the white flower. Several layers of ruched fabric were attached and stitched into petal shapes. It’s a marvel to behold. Again, a padded compotier and decorative outline stitching instead of the usual invisible appliqué stitches.
In this next block there’s yet another green print and more decorative stitching added to the appliqué.
Baskets made of thin strips of fabric show up repeatedly in Baltimore album quilts. It seems likely there were patterns or even kits available to the stitchers. This block includes reverse appliqué, with the green leaves around the petals cut out to reveal the padded buds.
Here rose petals are represented by stitched padding, and yet another green patterned fabric. Sorry it’s out of focus.
Finally, a return to this uniquely pictorial album quilt, from 1850—the height of the album quilt craze.
Some details. Though most Baltimore album quilts were made of cotton with occasional velvet, this one also includes wool tweeds. Notice especially the amount of embroidery that embellishes the appliqué.
Did you see the reverse appliqué on the two compotiers above? There’s more reverse appliqué on the bird below.
From the border:
The Civil War virtually ended the Baltimore album quilt fad. Far fewer fabrics were available and women were nursing and sewing for soldiers, managing their households without men, and in distress. Nevertheless, quilt making continued and embroidery increasingly made up for the lack of variety of fabrics. As time went on, quilts were increasingly embellished, and by 1890 the crazy quilt fad had taken hold.
Unlike the make-do patchwork quilts of poor, rural, and frontier women, the urban, middle-class women who created Baltimore album quilts and crazy quilts deliberately chose and bought the materials they used—often very costly materials, and their technical skills were matchless. (Somebody else must have been doing the housework!)
Okay, if you’ve stayed with me this far, you must love textile art as much as I do. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing some very special quilt art from Baltimore.
These are so beautiful and inspiring. Thanks for posting so many pictures.
Oh my – these are breathtakingly beautiful examples!
Thankyou for such a great write up about a type of quilt I didn’t know anything about!
Well, I didn’t know the history of Baltlimore quilts! And that they segued into crazy quilts bec of the civil war. Thanks for the explanations and the gorgeous pictures:-)
Thanks for the pictures of these lovely quilts.
I wish I could see them for real.
Why are my fingers itching to do some applique now?
Thanks for sharing.
As a quilter and a teacher of Baltimore applique, I just want you to know how much I have enjoyed the photographs and commentary on your beautiful websight. I look forward to visiting your pages often. We certainly share a passion, Nadine
je ne parle pas anglais mais vos baltimores sont superbes.C’est dans mes projets d’étudier le travail car j’aimerai en faire un. Je viens de terminer un “dear jane” il est en photo sur mon blog. http://anniepatch.over-blog.fr
Amitiés Annie64 FRANCE
jowynn thanks your compliments. This touches me much.I have just to create my blog two months ago. My project with a friend is to make a Baltimore home patch.I have liked the embroidery on yourhome page. Je a traduis French in English by it I hope that you will understand Amitiés . Anni64