Album Quilt
Catherine Palmer is responsible for not only this album quilt, but two other quilts in the MESDA Collection. Made of chintz appliqué, this album quilt was signed by more than twenty different women. These women consist of friends and family of Catherine and her daughter, Harriet Marion Palmer (1830-1896), who was the recipient of this quilt.
DESCRIPTION: This chintz appliqué quilt consists of 25 squares separated by chintz sashing. In each square is an appliquéd design including botanicals, birds, vases, and other motifs cut from various chintz fabrics. Signatures written by the maker of the individual square is written in ink, and many include the date. There is very thin batting between the layers. Cross-hatch quilting is throughout the body of the quilt, but it is not quilted through the chintz fabric. The wide border which measures 9 ½-inches, is quilted in an all-over diagonal pattern.
RELATED OBJECTS: In the MESDA Collection are three other quilts that descended in the Palmer and Marion families. Catherine Palmer’s chintz applique palampore quilt (acc. 2534.2) mesda.org, a crib quilt made by Harriet Marion (acc.2534.1) mesda.org and a mosaic quilt made by Catherine Palmer and her mother Harriet Marion (acc. 2534.4) mesda.org.
An album quilt made by members of the Palmer and Marion families is in the collection of the International Quilt Study Center at the University of Nebraska (2006.003.0005). Made by Mary Videau Marion Yeadon, the sister of Catherine Couturier Marion Palmer, and given to her niece, who she adopted after the death of her mother. It includes the date 1848 on some of the squares. www.internationalquiltmuseum.org
Another related chintz album quilt was sold at Christie’s (Lot 319) in New York in January of 1992. There are nine signatures that matched the MESDA quilt including Harriet Marion, Catherine Palmer, and Mary Videau Yeadon. The current location of this quilt is unknown.
