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QUILT
[Bedding]


missing
View at Kansas Memory

Accession Number: 1984.247.0

Physical Description: This crazy quilt features green and red velvet sashing that forms two large diamonds spanning the top. Sashing is embroidered with initials and a date. Quilt top’s irregular pieces are outlined in featherstitch embroidery and decorated with embroidered flowers, plants, birds, butterflies, and appliquéd objects. Wide apple green velvet border is embroidered with flowers in three corners and wheat stalks in the fourth. This elaborate quilt was made by Clara Strieby Hughes of Council Grove, Kansas, as a wedding gift for her niece Mary Dillon upon her marriage to James Monroe Miller on Dec. 23, 1884. Hughes was a businesswoman with a share in the M.C. Armstrong & Co. store in Council Grove. The silks she used in this quilt may have been store samples.

History of Object: Made by Clara L. Strieby Hughes of Council Grove in 1884 as a wedding gift for her niece Mary R. Dillon upon her marriage to James Monroe Miller, on December 23, 1884 in Council Grove, Kansas. Materials used in the quilt may be samples from the M. C. Armstrong & Co. store in which Hughes had a share. Photos of the maker and recipients are in the KSHS Library?s photo collection. Clara Hughes was the donor?s great-aunt (sister of her grandmother). Hughes arrived in Kansas in 1862. The 1880 US Census lists A. J. and C. L. Hughes residing in Council Grove. A. J. was a lawyer born ca. 1831 in Pennsylvania and Clara was born ca. 1834 in the same state. The 1900 census lists Clara as living with her brother-in-law and sister Mary Armstrong in Council Grove. The recipients of the quilt, James and Mary Miller, also lived in Council Grove at that time. James was born in May 1852 in Pennsylvania, and Mary in April 1859 in the same state. James Miller was an attorney-at-law in Morris Co., the state?s presidential elector in 1884 for James G. Blaine, and later a Congressman.

Date: 1884

Dimensions (in cm): 192.00 (H) 148.50 (W)

Index Terms

Associations and Subjects

    Origin, Place of: Council Grove (Kan.)
    Individual: Miller, James Monroe
    Origin, Place of: Morris County (Kan.)
    Theme/topic: Weddings
    Individual: Miller, Mary Rebecca "Mamie" Dillon (Mrs. James Monroe)

Creators and Contributors

    Hughes, Clara L. Strieby (Mrs. A. J.)

Status: Cataloged

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