Rose Good Kretsinger
Born: Hope, Dickinson County, Kansas, November 30, 1886. Married: William Samuel Kretsinger, Kansas City, Missouri, December 3, 1914. Died: Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas, June 23, 1963.
Rose Frances Good was born to Milton D. and Anna (Gleissner) Good in Hope, Dickinson County, Kansas, on November 30, 1886. The family operated the Good & Gleissner Manufacturing Company in nearby Abilene, with a dry goods store in Hope. David J. Eisenhower, father of future U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, was a partner in the business The depression years in the 1890s proved difficult for the company, and the family was forced to close, turning over the business to Eisenhower. The Good family relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, before 1900.
Artistry was important in Rose’s family; her grandmother made quilts, her mother painted porcelain dishes, and her grandfather was a potter. She attended the Chicago Institute of Art. One of her professors was Alphonse Mucha, a Czech painter, illustrator, and graphic artist known for his distinctive Art Nouveau posters. Mucha, a leader in the Arts and Crafts Movement, influenced much of Kretsinger’s future work. She graduated in 1908, then studied for a year in Europe. When she returned, she was a fabric and jewelry designer and buyer for Marshal Field’s department store. Kretsinger returned to Kansas and married William Kretsinger in 1914, they raised two children.
Rose used an appliqué approach to her quilting designs when she began in 1926. Americans were marking the nation’s sesquicentennial with a celebration in Philadelphia, and this time of Colonial Revival inspired her designs. Her first quilt was to be used on an antique bed she had inherited. She won first place after entering the quilt in the Lyon County fair. Kretsinger continued to produce more quilts featuring her fine appliqué designs. She believed that the quilt top should be turned over to more experienced quilters to complete the skillful process of stitching to sandwich the batting and bottom. She chose classic fabrics in designs from the past. As she gained experience, she applied her own aesthetic, and producing more prize-winning quilts at the local and national levels. She inspired others in her community, like Charlotte Jane Whitehill, to build a reputation of quilting excellence in Emporia.
One of her quilts, The Orchid Wreath, is completely original, made at the request of her daughter to match a bedroom décor in 1928. She created New Rose Tree in 1929, then Calendula from 1930-1932. She participated in a Kansas City Art Institute lecture and exhibit in 1930, showcasing 11 quilts in her collection. Through Kretsinger’s research, she became knowledgeable in the history of quilting and co-authored, with Carrie A. Hall of Leavenworth, The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America, a 300-page, illustrated book, in 1935.
Kretsinger’s husband died in 1940. A few years later she began work on Paradise Garden,completed in 1946, considered among the best of her quilts. She died in Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas, on June 23, 1963.
The Orchid Wreath and Paradise Garden were selected for an exhibit of the 100 best quilts in the 20th century at the International Quilt Festival in 1999. Kretsinger was inducted into the Quilter's Hall of Fame in 1985. Kretsinger’s daughter donated 12 of her mother’s quilts to the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas in 1971.
"Beautiful things appeal to the emotions and create a sort of mental state of quiet and spiritual goodness... We might even liken the quilt to musical composition. It has its high and low color tones, and its swelling and diminishing line rhythm; all carrying the eye through a design composition."
Rose G. Kretsinger, The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America, 1935
Entry: Kretsinger, Rose Good
Author: Kansas Historical Society
Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.
Date Created: June 2025
Date Modified: June 2025
The author of this article is solely responsible for its content.
