“You
just will not understand.
The
point is these quilts, these quilts.”
~
Alice Walker, “Everyday Use”
A few months ago while preparing for one of my English courses I
stumbled upon the Virginia Quilt Museum Seminar, Mourning and Meaning
Through Cloth: A Textile Study, a special two-day conference on
death and mourning in America. The brochure promised that I would learn about
American rituals of death and grieving as shared through the lens of quilts,
mourning dress, and historic textiles. With an already packed October schedule,
I thought, “I’m in!” I did not have to look too far to find a partner in crime
(read that as I asked Connie from
Hartwood Roses).
Prior to the
seminar, I knew very little about quilting, quilt history or textiles. Aside from the topic of death, the speakers
advertised caught my attention. They were scholars and historians. Since I am
taking a Public History course, I thought that this was like a win-win-win. I
was not wrong!
Located in
Harrisonburg, VA, the VQM opened in 1995 and is “dedicated to the mission of
collection and preservation of Virginia quilts for the benefit of the public” (VQM
brochure). In 2000, the VQM was gifted the historic Warren-Sipe House by the
Harrisonburg City Council, and that same year it was designated “as the
official quilt museum of the Commonwealth” by the Virginia General Assembly. The
expert curator of the museum is Gloria
Comstock who has an M.A. from the History of Textiles and Quilt
Studies program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (VQM website). In a
moment, I’m going to go on and on about how incredibly cool she is.
The seminar began
with a tour of Woodbine Cemetery, an 18 acre cemetery in Harrisonburg, VA that
includes approximately 9,000 individuals with the first burial being in 1850.
The VQM prepared a pamphlet “Design on Stone: Symbols of Mourning and
Remembrance” for the seminar with “the objective to connect symbols used on
tombstones of various eras to quilt patterns and quilting”, noting that “the
symbols are often found on both [gravestones and quilts] and reflect the design
of the period” (VQM). The pamphlet included a map of the cemetery and was
marked with the locations of 23 symbols and important historic figures, and it
also noted the location of docents throughout the cemetery.
I should point
out that this was a mere week after my train fall and was the first time that I
was mobile but there was no way I was going to miss the cemetery. And, I’m sure
it’s not that surprising that Connie and I don’t always follow the rules. The
docents desperately wanted us to start at the top of the hill but there were
too many beautiful gravestones on our way up the hill. We finally did make our
way to the top but only after meeting some individuals with amazing stones.
My favorite
grave marker in Woodbine belongs to Bettie Miller who passed away on January 9,
1884 when she was 32 years, 7 months, and 6 days old. I like the specificity of
such details.
I feel like once you see a “blue stone” you can never unsee them. Between
1874 and 1912 the Monumental Bronze Company of Bridgeport, CT made headstones
that were meant to “weather”. Made of sand cast zinc, they called them White
Bronze for marketing purposes to make it more appealing to customers. The zinc
carbonate gave the headstones a bluish gray color. Each stone is individually
designed for the person who ordered it. These monuments were ordered from a
sales agent with a catalog, and one could select numerous options that when put
together became a one-of-a-kind piece of art. Compared to granite and marble, these
headstones were inexpensive. The company mass produced them using molds. And, not
that I suggest going around taping on grave markers but once you touch one, you’ll
realize that it isn’t stone at all. In fact, they’re hollow. Unfortunately, WWI
pretty much put an end to the company when zinc was required for the war
efforts. The company just couldn’t recover. It’s a shame because unless they
are struck by a fallen tree or some other disaster, White Bronze really stands
up to the test of time. You can read the inscription and details without much
effort. If the company were around today, I would order one for myself.
I’ve seen some amazing
blue stones but I’ve never seen one with an open book like Ms. Miller has.
Following the
cemetery tour and lunch (and me hobbling around…oh, and a downpour of rain), the
opening lecture was “In Memoriam: Mourning in America” by Craig T. Friend, Ph.D.
Dr. Friend’s lecture included a focus on early Colonial American death
practices and a discussion of a “good death” along with the sanctity of the
corpse. He overviewed the history of burial practices; Death Culture, whereas
even young children played with coffin and hearse toys; and, gender norms (e.g.
the appropriateness of showing signs of grief by men and women). This led to a
focus on the Victorians becoming both “producers and consumers of mourning
objects”, the Rural Cemetery Movement, and symbolism on the gravestones. His
lecture continued to overview such practices to the paradigm shift of privacy
over public displays of mourning.
The second
lecture was by Hugo Kohl entitled “Jewelry for Mourning”. Kohl is a jewelry
historian, a designer, and the founder of the Museum of American Jewelry Design
& Manufacturing in Harrisonburg, VA. Kohl discussed how his museum is a
“living history” museum that shares the history of master engravers creating
jewelry from the 1790s to the mid-1940s. He shared that each engraver would
carve a design into a steel block by hand resulting in what is called a hub.
The Museum of American Jewelry Design and Manufacturing houses the largest
collection of jewelry hubs in America.
Kohl’s
lecture focused on the changes of jewelry associated with death in America and
Europe with poesy rings as love tokens and memento mori, a Latin expression for
"remember that you must die" coming together to create Victorian
mourning jewelry. Kohl brought in examples of mourning jewelry including jet,
woven hair in brooches, and a Victorian pamphlet offerings step-by-step
instructions for learning how to weave hair. He also discussed how hair weaving
was a big mail order industry. Customers would purchase jewelry and include the
hair in it themselves, or they would away the hair to have it set in the
jewelry. Kohl explained that as the former customers aged their off spring
became less interested in purchasing such jewelry. The industry died out (pun intended) as
hygiene was emphasized.
After two
engaging lectures, the evening exhibit of the first day included a focus on the
“ghosts” of the Warren-Sipe House, which included members from the James
Madison University Ghost Hunters Club, quilt historians, and other historians
to share information about the house. The VQM created a brochure that included
the history of the house; it was once owned by Colonel Edward T. Warren, a law
graduate from the University of Virginia and Commander of the 10th
Virginia Volunteer Infantry. Warren was killed in the war in 1864. The house
later sold to George E. Sipe, another lawyer in Harrisonburg. Upon his death,
the house was sold to the City of Harrisonburg and used by the Department of
Parks and Recreation until 1995 when VQM occupied the building.
As the
brochure notes, there is a resident ghost of the house; “The Warren-Sipe House
served as a hospital during the Civil War. Many soldiers came through the doors
of the house, and it is said that one patient in particular never left.”
Believed to be the late VMI Cadet, Joseph White Latimer was “the youngest
battalion commander in the Confederate Army.” Wounded at the Battle of
Gettysburg, Latimer was brought to the Warren-Sipe House where he ended up dying
of gangrene in 1863. As one of the prominent Civil War dead in Woodbine
Cemetery, it seems fitting that Latimer’s ghost would be haunting this building
as he has his own Wikipedia page, was featured in the article, "Joseph W.
Latimer, The Boy Major, at Gettysburg" in Gettysburg Magazine (1994),
and appeared in Douglas S. Freeman’s Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command
(1946). In Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places, Dickey
writes:
Ghost stories and haunted tales connect us to the past, to family and
to our ancestors. The ghost stories of the South, particularly those that reach
back to the antebellum era, establish a through line in a property or a place,
give our surroundings a depth and a richness that go beyond the present moment.
As supernatural beings, spirits often come to represent some universal truth of
the past. They turn space into time and can be a way of making a place stand
for some transcendental value or universal ideal. (109)
Reports in the brochure reveal that Latimer “has
been sighted standing on the landing in the upstairs hall fully dressed in his
Confederate uniform” and that he “has never caused any trouble for staff or
visitors, except quite a scare every now and then.” The message on the website
Haunted Houses explains, “No reports of mischief have been reported [regarding
Latimer’s ghost], as he was a serious, responsible young man when alive”
attempting to reiterate the message that this was a local hero who died for the
South and who simply wants to return home, an opportunity that many of the
soldiers from the Civil War never experienced. Friend and Glover argue in Death
and the American South that death found a “place in the South’s cultural
tourism industry” (13). Further, they note, “Death’s association with southern
memory, history, and identity has thus become an important component of the
region’s heritage tourism, blending the past with the present” (13). The VQM’s
About page on their website highlights Latimer’s story and shares, “Stonewall
Jackson's ‘Boy Major’, Joseph W. Latimer, died at the Warren-Sipe House in 1863
from an infected wound suffered at the Battle of Gettysburg.” Latimer’s story
along with the ghost story from the brochure appears to capitalize on Latimer’s
connection to the house in order to attract visitors.
For many of
those attending the seminar, “Ghosts of the Warren-Sipe House Quilt Turning”
led by curator Gloria Comstock was the more popular event of the evening.
Having never
attended a “quilt turning” I honestly believed that it was going to be a
demonstration on how to fold quilts. I did not realize how profound such an
event could be. The quilt turning included nearly a dozen quilts laid out on
top of one another. The turning included the curator, expert audience
participation, and docents in white gloves carefully coordinating the folding
down of each historic quilt, some of which were over 150 years old. As Comstock
explained, understanding quilts meant that we needed to do so within the
context of the social values of a particular time and place, as well as through
the development of certain technology. Comstock read from documented oral
histories that were associated with the quilts. In some cases, she conducted
these oral histories herself interviewing family members to document the
first-hand accounts.
The audience
members, many of whom were experts in quilt histories, identified the years of certain
fabrics, patterns, threads, and regional color preferences to date each aspect
of the quilt. It would be more correct to give a timeline of several dates for
each quilt since the experts could determine when a quilt was started and when
the original quilters’ ancestors passed it down to the next generations to
continue. They were able to determine how the quilt had been stored based on
the fading of fabrics. Being interested in semiotics, Judy Elsley’s explanation
in Quilts as Text(iles): The Semiotics of Quilting (Studies in Modern
European History)about the similarities between quilt studies and semiotics
resonates. She writes, “A quilt is a text. It speaks its maker's desires and
beliefs, hopes and fears, sometimes in a language any reader can understand,
but often in an obscure language available only to the initiated.” While the
lectures, cemetery visit, and jewelry museum visit were fascinating, the quilt
turning was easily my favorite event. It was an honor to watch experts
demonstrate their working knowledge. They read the quilts; they debated with
one another; they acquiesced and even yielded to one another’s expertise.
If the quilt
turning had been the only portion of the seminar that I had attended, I still would
have considered the event a success. It directly connected with Alice Walker’s
short story “Everyday Use” and offered a wonderful glimpse into public history
in practice. It also connected to the affective aspect of learning as I was
able to see beauty in many of these old quilts where I had previously not been
able to.
The second
day of the seminar, which I will discuss in more detail in a later post,
included a lecture by Karin J. Bohleke, Director of the Fashion Archives &
Museum of Shippensburg University, PA, an avid seamstress, embroiderer, and
lace-maker. There was a lecture by Sheryl DeJong a representative from the
Smithsonian Institute National Museum of American History Textile Collection. She
writes and lectures about school girl needlework. And finally, the seminar
keynote speaker was Polly Mello, a quiltmaker-historian, collector, independent
scholar and curator. She shared her antique and contemporary quilts from her
collection, “Midnight in the Garden of the Quilt.”
Works Cited
Comstock, Gloria. "Ghosts of the Warren-Sipe House Quilt
Turning." Mourning and Meaning Through Cloth: A Textile Study. Virginia
Quilt Museum, Harrisonburg. 21 Oct. 2016. Lecture.
DeJong, Sheryl. "Memorial Pictures & Samplers." Mourning
and Meaning Through Cloth: A Textile Study. Virginia Quilt Museum,
Harrisonburg. 22 Oct. 2016. Lecture.
Dickey, Colin. Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places.
New York: Viking, 2016. Print.
Didawick, Lauren, comp. The Virginia Quilt Museum Presents Conversatons
on Midnight in the Garden of the Quilt Exhibition. Harrisonburg: Virginia
Quilt Museum, 2016. Print.
Elsley, Judy. Quilts as Text(iles): The Semiotics of Quilting
(Studies in Modern European History). Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler
Verlag Der Wissenschaften, 1996. Print.
Freeman, Douglas S., Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command (3
volumes), Scribners, 1946, Print.
Friend, Craig T. "In Memoriam: Mourning in America." Mourning
and Meaning Through Cloth: A Textile Study. Virginia Quilt Museum, Harrisonburg.
21 Oct. 2016. Lecture.
Friend, Craigh Thompson, and Lorri Glover. "Introduction: Death
and the American South." Death and the American South. New York:
Cambridge UP, 2015. 1-14. Print.
Hugo Kohl brochure. Harrisonburg: Hugo Kohl, 2016. Print.
Jorgensen, Jay, "Joseph W. Latimer, The Boy Major, at
Gettysburg" in Gettysburg Magazine, Morningside. January 1994, pp.
28–35. Print.
Kohl, Hugo. "Jewelry for Mourning." Mourning and Meaning
Through Cloth: A Textile Study. Virginia Quilt Museum, Harrisonburg. 21 Oct.
2016. Lecture.
Mello, Polly. "Exhibit Gallery Walk." Mourning and Meaning
Through Cloth: A Textile Study. Virginia Quilt Museum, Harrisonburg. 22 Oct.
2016. Lecture.
Mello, Polly. "Quilts that Go Bump in the Night." Mourning
and Meaning Through Cloth: A Textile Study. Virginia Quilt Museum,
Harrisonburg. 21 Oct. 2016. Tour.
"Virginia
Quilt Museum: Celebrating and Nurturing Virginia's Quilting Heritage." The
Virginia Quilt Museum. The Virginia Quilt Museum, n.d.
http://www.vaquiltmuseum.org/ Web. 05 Nov. 2016.
Virginia Quilt Museum. Design on Stone: Symbols of Mourning and
Remembrance.... Woodbine Cemetery. Harrisonburg: Virginia Quilt Museum,
n.d. Print.
Virginia Quilt Museum. History of the Warren-Sipe House.
Harrisonburg: Virginia Quilt Museum, 2016. Print.
Virginia Quilt Museum brochure. Harrisonburg: Virginia Quilt Museum,
2016. Print.
"Warren Sipe House HauntedHouses.com." Haunted Houses.
N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2016.
