Images(5)

Quilt, Pieced Framed Center Medallion

Dateca. 1840

Maker Mary Sophia Gould Humphreys (Mrs. William Humphreys) (ca. 1822-1915)

OriginAmerica, New Jersey, Passaic County

MediumPlain and printed cottons

DimensionsOH: 80" x OW: 93 1/2" (203.2 x 237.5cm)

Credit LineGift of Robert A. Humphreys

Object number2015.609.11

DescriptionThis is a large pieced quilt constructed in a framed center medallion format. The center square design consists of six 8-pointed stars alternating with blocks of a brown small floral print. Four concentric borders of a floral print with 8-pointed stars in corners alternate with borders of flying geese. A label attached to the quilt reads: "This Quilt was made by/ MARY SOPHIA GOULD/ when She was passed 80 year of age/ (About 200 years ago.)/ The Floral Strips was her Wedding Dress/ "Calico that cost $1.00 a yard."/ She died at the age of 95 years./ was my Great Great Grand Mother." The quilt is backed in a plain cream-colored cotton and the edges are finished in a 1/2" folded blue and white tape. It is quilted in 5-7 running stitches per inch in parallel lines.
Label TextThis quilt, made by Mary Sophia Gould Humphreys of Passaic, New Jersey, is reported to feature fabric from her wedding dress. A placard adhered to the quilt by the maker's grandson asserts that Mary finished this quilt just after her 80th birthday, approximately 60 years after her marriage. This quilt design, with its center medallion of eight-pointed stars, is more often seen in earlier appliqued quilts, indicating that it was likely designed at the start of her marriage in the 1840s. If what the placard says is true, Mary worked on, added to, or altered her quilt for six decades.
InscribedAn attached placard reads, "This Quilt was made by/ MARY SOPHIA GOULD/ when She was passed 80 year of age/ (About 200 years ago.)/ The Floral Strips was her Wedding Dress/ "Calico that cost $1.00 a yard."/ She died at the age of 95 years./ was my Great Great Grand Mother."
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceAccording to Robert Humphreys, who gifted this quilt to CWF, Mary Sophia Gould Humphreys was born in 1822 in England and lived her first several years in Monmouthshire, Wales. She made the quilt from her wedding dress and completed it when she was 80 years old. She died at 93 years old in 1915. The placard attached to the quilt was written by William Frederick Humphreys, grandson of Mary and grandfather of Robert Humphreys. It was incorrectly labeled as being made 200 years before the 1930s, when William Frederick Humphreys wrote the placard.

The quilt was passed down to the donor, Robert Humphreys in the following way: Maria Sophia Gould Humphreys and William Humphreys had a child named Frederick W. Humphreys who married a woman named Georgia. One of their children, William Frederick Humphreys married a woman named Florence. Together they had a child named Herbert Lindsey Humphreys who married Gabrielle Florence Perrault Humphreys, and together they had Robert Humphreys. The family tree can be diagrammed in the following way: William Humphreys (born in Brooklyn, NY in 1820-1821, died in 1899) + Mary Sophia Gould Humphreys (born in 1822 in NJ, married in 1844) --> Frederick Humphreys (silk weaver, born in Patterson, NY between 1851-1855) + Georgia (born in NJ between 1852-1858, married in 1874) --> William Frederick Humphreys (born in Patterson, NJ in 1877) + Florence (born 1876-77 in England) --> Herbert Lindsey Humphreys (born in 1903 in Patterson, NJ) + Gabrielle Florence Perrault Humphreys (born 1908) --> Robert Humphreys.

Biography of maker: Mary Sophia Gould Humphreys was born in approximately 1822 in Passaic, New Jersey. This contrasts with the family history passed down through generations of the Humphreys family, which asserts that Mary was born in 1822 in England and lived her first several years in Monmouthshire, Wales. Mary married William Humphreys, born in either 1820 or 1821 in Brooklyn, New York. They had seven children. Family history says William was a silk worker, but according to census records, he was a carriage builder. Most records show that Mary died in 1915, at 95 years old in Patterson, New York.