Artist/Maker:

Deckel, E. C.

Place Made:

Date Made:

1848

Medium:

cotton

Dimensions:

HOA: 112″ WOA: 112″

Accession Number:

5840

Description:

Baltimore Album Quilt made with twenty-five individual appliqued squares featuring fabrics of red, green, yellow, and blue. A cross-hatched floral border encloses the squares separated by red and green sashing.

History:

This quilt is inscribed “E. C. Deckel, April 6, 1848.” Other initials are inscribed throughout the quilt indicating multiple makers.

“The development of the Baltimore album quilt type, unique to central Maryland and made during a remarkably brief period, depended upon the interaction of large numbers of women of English and German heritage in an area where quantities of expensive imported fabrics and locally made textiles were readily available.” (Jennifer Goldsborough, Chief Curator at the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore Album Quilt Lecture, March 6, 1995).

This quilt is unique as it has various symbolic motifs specific to the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows – the heart in hand, the dove, the three links, the shining sun, the bee hive, the moon, the Bible, and the serpent on the rod.

The Independent Order of the Odd Fellows was founded in London, but its beginning in America was in Baltimore in 1819.

Credit Line:

Gift of Bridget and Al Ritter