Collection – A New Deal for Quilts

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Young migrant agricultural worker on bed outside his home in McIntosh County, Oklahoma

Young boy in bed with measles in the home of a FSA (Farm Security Administration) borrower. Greene County, Georgia

Yankee Puzzle

WPA workers making comforters in Catlettsburg, Kentucky

WPA Sewing Project, Talbot County, Baltimore

WPA Sewing Project, Denver

WPA Sewing Project, Baltimore

WPA Project Number 136 – Workers engaged in a sewing project at a training work center in Hagerstown

WPA Art Center in Roswell, New Mexico

World Without End

Woodville, California. FSA (Farm Security Administration) farm workers’ community. Carding surplus cotton which will be used for quilts

Woodville, California. FSA (Farm Security Administration) farm workers’ community. Carding surplus cotton which will be used for quilts

Woodville, California. FSA (Farm Security Administration) farm workers’ community. Carding surplus cotton which will be used for quilts

Woodville, California. FSA (Farm Security Administration) farm workers’ community. Agricultural worker quilting in the sewing room

Woodville, California. FSA (Farm Security Administration) farm workers’ community. Agricultural worker quilting in the sewing room

Women looking at quilting and crocheting exhibit at Gonzales County Fair. Gonzales, Texas

Women employed by SERA sew a quilt, Los Angeles

Woman who has not yet found a place to move out of the Hinesville Army camp area working on a quilt in her smokehouse. Near Hinesville, Georgia

Woman who has not yet found a place to move out of the Hinesville Army camp area working on a quilt in her smokehouse. Near Hinesville, Georgia

Wife of tenant farmer pulling out trundle bed in her one-room shack home near Sallisaw, Okahoma

Wife of sharecropper, with baby in her lap, at sewing machine. Family will work under tenant purchase program. Near Caruthersville, Missouri

Wife of sharecropper putting baby to sleep near Pace, Mississippi. Background photo, Sunflower Plantation

Wife of FSA (Farm Security Administration) rehabilitation borrower sewing a quilt. Grant County, Illinois

White migrant worker lying on bed in tent home near Mercedes, Texas.

Variable Star

Typical old tenant’s house with bedding being aired and sunned. Coffee County, Alabama

Typical old tenant’s house with bedding being aired and sunned. Coffee County, Alabama

Typical farmhouse, spring housecleaning, homemade quilts and bedding in sun. Coffee County, Alabama

Typical farmhouse, spring housecleaning, homemade quilts and bedding in sun. Coffee County, Alabama

Turlock, California. Housewife (left) with some of the quilts the PTA (Parent Teacher Association) has made for the Red Cross. She is president of PTA

Turlock, California. Housewife (left) with some of the quilts the PTA (Parent Teacher Association) has made for the Red Cross. She is president of PTA

Turkey Track Quilt, c. 1941

Tiger Lily

There are difficulties, but encouragement

Black and white photograph of girls lined up holding patchwork quilts

Thelma Shamburg and Mrs. Spragg (or Sprague), NYA (National Youth Administration) state supervisor, helping Catherine Plumer and Sallie Titus at sewing machines in school economics room. Gee’s Bend, Alabama

The Tulip

The Peony

The Ingraham family who share a shack with another family near Alvin, Wisconsin. Mrs. Ingraham is sick in bed

The Family — Industry and Agriculture

The Cockscomb

Texas Map in Vivid Color is Center Feature of Centennial Quilt Gift to John M. Hendrix, Official of W.P.A.

Sunburst

Stuffed Quilt

Stitching a Quilt, 10th Ave. & 36th St.

Star of Bethlehem Quilt

Star and Crescent

Southeast Missouri Farms. Sharecropper’s child asleep on bed

Southeast Missouri Farms. Customers examining yard goods in cooperative store. La Forge project, Missouri

Southeast Missouri Farms. Child of sharecropper reading on bed in living room

Silk Quilt (Log Cabin)

Sick child in bed in trailer home. Sebastian, Texas

Sewing a quilt. Gees Bend, Alabama

Sewing a Quilt, 10th Ave. & 36th St.

Sewing

Seamstress

Scene in quarters of Negro berry pickers near Independence, Louisiana

Rural arts exhibition held under the auspices of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in the patio of the U.S. Department of Agriculture building. Wooden religious figures made by Indian in New Mexico; oldest dated quilt made in West Virginia, then a part of Virginia in 1795

Rooster Quilt

Rocky Glen

Rocky Glen

Revival of Old-Fashioned Thrift

Resettlement Administration; Rural Rehabilitation; “Quilting project”; Rock Crest School, Chambersburg TWP., Iredell Co., N.C.

Quilts of family on relief near Jefferson, Texas

Quilting, 36th Street & 10th Avenue

Quilting, 10th Ave & 36th St.

Quilting in sharecropper’s home near Pace, Mississippi. Background photo for Sunflower Plantation

Quilted Bedspread

Quilted Bedspread

Quilted Applique Coverlet

Quilt, 10th Ave. & 36th

Quilt making at the sewing project, St. Paul

Quilt made by Mrs. Bill Stagg. Pie Town, New Mexico

Quilt hung across doorway which separates living quarters of two families of white migrants. Berry pickers near Hammond Louisiana

Quilt Coverlet

Quilt Block

Quilt Applique on Linen Back

Quilt (Star of Bethlehem)

Quilt (corner)

Quilt (Cherry Tree)

Quilt (Applique)

Quilt

Quilt

Quilt

Pupils in home economics class. Lakeview Project school. Arkansas

Prosperity is Just Around the Corner

Prize quilt given Mrs. Roosevelt

Pride of the North

Pink Dogwood

Pineapple

Pin Wheel

Pieced Quilt – “Star Pattern”

Patchwork Quilt, c. 1938

Patchwork Quilt (Crazy, sections)

Patchwork Quilt

Patchwork Quilt

Patchwork Quilt

Patchwork Bedspread

Part of RR (Rural Rehabilitation) family, now dropped, children have hookworm, mother pellagra and milk leg, according to nurse’s report. Father works on WPA (Work Projects Administration). Coffee County, Alabama

Part of one family living in miner’s boarding house. One woman and six children live in one room. Two beds, no water, no heat. Mohegan, West Virginia

One of William Howell’s sons in their home near Tipler, Wisconsin

Old Negress, wife of agricultural day laborer, in bed with rheumatism. Wagoner County, Oklahoma

Old ex-slave on a farm near Greensboro, Alabama [2]

Old ex-slave on a farm near Greensboro, Alabama

Old company house on wash day. Swepsonville, North Carolina

Oil field worker in his trailer home reading a letter. Seminole, Oklahoma

NYA (National Youth Administration) girls making bedspreads under supervision of Juanita Coleman, NYA leader, in school home economics room. Gee’s Bend, Alabama

Negroes at Gees Bend, Alabama. Descendants of slaves of the Pettway plantation. They are still living very primitively on the plantation

Negro woman, strawberry picker, arranging her living quarters near Hammond, Louisiana

Negro mother and baby in bed in the house furnished them while working in the strawberry fields near Independence, Louisiana

Negro farm family near Greensboro, Alabama

Negro couple, intrastate migratory workers, sleeping on the floor. Near Independence, Louisiana

Nap time in the nursery school at the FSA (Farm Security Administration) farm workers community, Woodville, California

Nap time in the nursery school at the FSA (Farm Security Administration) farm workers community, Woodville, California

Nap time in the nursery school at the FSA (Farm Security Administration) farm workers community, Woodville, California

Nap time in the nursery school at the FSA (Farm Security Administration) farm workers community, Woodville, California

Nap time in the nursery school at the FSA (Farm Security Administration) farm workers community, Woodville, California

Nap time in the nursery school at the FSA (Farm Security Administration) farm workers community, Woodville, California

Mulatto ex-slave in her house near Greensboro, Alabama [2]

Mulatto ex-slave in her house near Greensboro, Alabama

Mrs. Verden Lee sewing on her new sewing machine in her home. Transylvania Project, Louisiana

Mrs. Shotbang with her four children she delivered herself. Husband broke his foot early this spring. About time baby was to be born they ran short of coal and bed clothing, Mrs. Shotbang had to take care of the newly-born baby and the rest of the family, cutting fence posts for fuel. The family almost froze; no mattresses on the beds this past winter, only quilts over the hard springs

Mrs. Lizzie Chambers and Mrs. Mary Collier piecing quilts while Mrs. Octa Self, forelady of the quilting project directs the pattern they are to follow.

Mrs. L.L. LeCompt stitching quilt squares together. She does all her family sewing. Coffee County, Alabama

Mrs. Cleveland’s Choice

Mrs. Clarence N. Pace’s mother-in-law quilting in their home. Transylvania Project, Louisiana

Mrs. Clarence N. Pace with her children and her mother-in-law quilting in their home. Transylvania Project, Louisiana

Mrs. Bill Stagg with state quilt which she made, Pie Town, New Mexico

Mrs. Bill Stagg with state quilt that she made, Pie Town, New Mexico. A community settled by about 200 migrant Texas and Oklahoma farmers who filed homestead claims … Mrs. Stagg helps her husband in the field with plowing planting, weeding corn and harvesting beans. She quilts while she rests during the noon hour.

Mrs. Bill Stagg exhibiting a quilt made from tobacco sacks which she ripped up, dyed, and pierced. Nothing is wasted on these homesteading farms. Pie Town, New Mexico

Mr. & Mrs. Peacock, RR (Rural Rehabilitation) family (four years) and children in front of their home. Coffee County, Alabama

Mother of tenant purchase client piecing a quilt. Maricopa County, Arizona

Migrant worker on bed in tent home.

Migrant packinghouse worker’s home, showing only bed for six people rolled up in the corner. They are from Tennessee. Parents must leave the children alone when both work. Belle Glade, Florida

Mexican woman resting on bed in her home. San Antonio, Texas

Mexican boy sick in bed. San Antonio, Texas

Menlo Park Methodist Church Quilt

Members of the women’s club making a quilt. Granger Homesteads, Iowa

Members of the women’s club making a quilt. Granger Homesteads, Iowa

Meeker County, Minnesota. Elaine McCormick, one of the McRaith grandchildren, making the beds in the morning before the school bus comes

Making a quilt in Scranton, Iowa, home. The ladies will give the quilt to a needy family

Making a quilt from surplus commodity cotton in Greensboro, Greene County, Georgia [4]

Making a quilt from surplus commodity cotton in Greensboro, Greene County, Georgia [3]

Making a quilt from surplus commodity cotton in Greensboro, Greene County, Georgia [2]

Making a quilt from surplus commodity cotton in Greensboro, Greene County, Georgia

Lucindy Lawrence Jurdon, Age 79

Lotus Flower

Lotus Flower

Little boy sick in bed. His father has been employed in construction work at the naval air base but was hurt and is now working in a parking lot. Corpus Christi, Texas

Lititz, Pennsylvania. The oldest member of the Moravian sewing circle is in her nineties. Members of the circle quilt for anyone who wants it at the cost of one cent a yard of thread, and the money goes to the church

Lititz, Pennsylvania. The Moravian sewing circle quilts for anyone at one cent a yard of thread and donates the money to the church

Jorena Pettway making flower decorations for her home. She has made practically all her own furniture and her own bedspreads and chair covers from flour sacks, etc. Gee’s Bend, Alabama

Jorena Pettway and her daughter making chair cover out of bleached flour sacks and flower decorations from paper. She also made the chairs and practically all the furniture in the house. Gees Bend, Alabama

Interior of tent of white migrant family near Edinburg, Texas. Bed is on the floor. Tent was made of patched cotton materials of various sorts. The man said he had worked in a cotton mill in Dallas, Texas, and had obtained the materials then

Interior of tent home of white migrant family near Harlingen, Texas. Bed on floor used by two boys

Interior of shack described in other pictures. Mr. W.R. Carpenter of Beaumont, Texas also a truck driver, seated on bed. Men very willing to have photo made, saying they should cooperate in this undertaking as they were all free Americans and hoped for better conditions. Alexandria, Louisiana

Interior of Negro tenant’s home showing mosquito netting over bed. Mileston Plantation, Mississippi Delta, Mississippi

Interior of Negro tenant’s home showing mosquito netting over bed. Mileston Plantation, Mississippi

Inhabitants of Gees Bend, Alabama

Indian Trail

Indian Hatchet

Housewives in Tygart Valley, West Virginia, have weekly group meetings in home economics. Here they are quilting

Horses and wagon of Negro standing in the churchyard. Notice the ladder and quilts. McIntosh County, Oklahoma

Home of Peacock family, RR (Rural Rehabilitation), four 4 years. Coffee County, Alabama

Home economics class. Greenbelt, Maryland

Home economics and home management class for adults, under supervision of Miss Evelyn M. Driver (standing in white uniform). Everything they make including the small handmade looms, utilizes materials of local origin as cornshucks, cane, flour and meal and feed sacks, etc. Flint River Farms, Georgia

Harry Kaplan (right) showing blanket which he has made from waste scraps of cloth. Jersey Homesteads, Hightstown, New Jersey

Harlingen, Texas. FSA (Farm Security Administration) camp. Sewing room

Three women standing around a stack of rolled fabric

Hands, 10th Ave. & 36th St.

Handmade quilt, Virginia craft co-op on U.S. Highway No. 1, twenty miles north of Fredericksburg, Virginia

Handmade Quilt

Hand work at Gonzales County Fair, Gonzales Texas. Notice the Bible quilt. This pattern is very popular in all rural sections and is to be seen at every country fair

Greensboro, Greene County, Georgia. Making a quilt from surplus commodity cotton

Grandmother’s Pride

Grandmother from Oklahoma with grandson, working on quilt. California, Kern County

Grandmother from Oklahoma and her pieced quilt. California, Kern County

Girl Sewing

Garden Wreath

Full Blown Tulip

Friendship quilt. Pie Town, New Mexico

Friendship Fan

Fox and Geese

First Sewing Shop of WPA Opens Here

Finishing the Quilt

Figure in a square dance. Pie Town, New Mexico. Notice the quilting frame overhead

Federal Art Project artist in Dayton

Farmer and child waiting in warehouse for their tobacco to be auctioned off (it is covered with old quilts and burlap to keep it “in order” until last minute before sale). Durham, North Carolina

Farmer and child waiting in warehouse for their tobacco to be auctioned off (it is covered with old quilts and burlap to keep it “in order” until last minute before sale). Durham, North Carolina

Farm worker and his wife in their cottage at the FSA (Farm Security Administration) labor camp. Caldwell, Idaho. Notice the quilt on frame near the ceiling

Farm women, members of the “Helping Hand” club, carefully roll up the quilt upon which they are working. Near West Carlton, Yamhill County, Oregon.

Farm women working on quilt. Near West Carlton, Yamhill County, Oregon [2]

Farm women of the “Helping Hand” club display a pieced quilt which they are making for the benefit of one of their numbers. Near West Carlton, Yamhill County, Oregon.

Farm wives at bimonthly meeting of the Helping Hand society. Gage County, Nebraska

Farm Security Administration (FSA) camp. Farmersville, California. Resident nurse interviews mother and examines sick baby

Black and white photograph of child in mother's lap, sitting on bed with tied comforter, while nurse leans in.

Farm Security Administration (FSA) camp. Farmersville, California. Resident nurse interviews mother and examines sick baby

Family Quilting

Evening Star

Eleven Mile Corner, Arizona. FSA (Farm Security Administration) migratory workers community. Home economics class

Dutchman’s Puzzle

Ducks and Ducklings

Donald Richberg with NRA flag

Dolly Madison Star

Democrat or Whig Rose

Daughter of migratory berry picker taking a nap on her bed on the floor. Near Ponchatoula, Louisiana

Daughter of migrant auto wrecker doing her lessons on bed in tent home. Corpus Christi, Texas

Daughter of A.O. Ryland. Family used quilts as mattresses. Near Williston, North Dakota

Dancers at the square dance. Pie Town, New Mexico

Cutting Fabric, 10th Ave. & 36th St.

Crazy Quilt – Patchwork

Crazy Quilt

Crazy Quilt

Crazy Patchwork

Cotton Quilt

Chimney Sweep

Children of white migratory berry pickers near Ponchatoula, Louisiana

Children of Negro family who do odd jobs on strawberry farm near Hammond, Louisiana

Children of Jack Cutter in bed in their trailer at FSA (Farm Security Administration) camp. Erie, Pennsylvania

Child sitting on bed in tent home near Sallisaw, Oklahoma. Sequoyah County

Child of white migrant strawberry picker on bed in tent near Hammond, Louisiana

Child of Mr. Browning, FSA (Farm Security Administration) rehabilitation borrower. Dead Ox Flat, Malheur County, Oregon

Chicken feed, flour and other bulky products are now bagged in printed cotton materials for use as dress materials. Mercedes, Texas

Camps of migrant pea workers. California [2]

Camps of migrant pea workers. California

Buying dress goods in project cooperative store. Transylvania Project, Louisiana

Butterfly applique quilt made by Mrs. Bill Stagg, homesteader from Texas and Oklahoma. Pie Town, New Mexico

Butler County Emergency School Sewing Project

Black and white phototgraph of African American women with needlework with one white woman providing instruction.

Britchy

Boy resting on bed in attic of sharecropper shack. New Madrid County, Missouri

Box Elder County, Utah. Mormon women tacking a quilt to be used by a sheepherder

Box Elder County, Utah. Mormon women tacking a quilt to be used by a sheepherder

Bedspread (Detail of Center)

Bedspread

Bedspread

Bedspread

Bedspread

Bedspread

Bedspread

Bedspread

Bedspread

Bedspread

Bedspread

Bedroom of tenant farmer living near Warner, Oklahoma. Notice American flag quilt

Bed in William Howell’s home near Tipler, Wisconsin. He is a cut-over farmer with a family on relief

Bed in Mexican home. In practically all Mexican homes the beds consist of old blankets and quilts that are spread upon the bare floors. Crystal City, Texas

Bed in Buckboard Charlie’s cabin near Iron River, Michigan

Bear’s Paw

Basket of Tulips

Barn Raising

At Work in WPA Sewing Room

At the square dance. Pie Town, New Mexico

At Last the Crazy Quilt is Finished

At a meeting of the Clark Hill Club, conducted by Miss Velma Patterson, vocational field worker from Elba, at the home of FSA (Farm Security Administration) project family, J.A. Veasy. The women discuss materials for clothing and curtains. Coffee County, Alabama

Appliquéd Bedspread

Applique Quilt

Applique Quilt

Applique Coverlet

Applique Bedspread, “Black Family Album”

Adding Batting to the Quilt, 10th Ave.

A young woman on a NYA sewing project in Minnesota

A woman making a quilt in a WPA sewing room project in New Albany, Indiana

A quilting party in an Alvin, Wisconsin, home

A Quilting Party

A Patchwork Quilt of Favorite Tales

A display of sewing and needle work made by NYA (National Youth Administration) girls in school home economics room. Gee’s Bend, Alabama

Doll’s Cradle and Quilt, c. 1953

[Untitled photo, possibly related to: Harry Kaplan (right) showing blanket which he has made from waste scraps of cloth. Jersey Homesteads, Hightstown, New Jersey]

[Untitled photo, possibly related to: Greensboro, Greene County, Georgia. Making a quilt from surplus commodity cotton] [2]

[Untitled photo, possibly related to: Greensboro, Greene County, Georgia. Making a quilt from surplus commodity cotton]

[Untitled photo, possibly related to: Box Elder County, Utah. Mormon women tacking a quilt to be used by a sheepherder]

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