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Quilt
Quilt, Pieced Schoolhouse
Quilt

Quilt, Pieced Schoolhouse

Date1940-1960
Probably by Margaret Carr (b. ca. 1909)
Owned by Margaret Carr (b. ca. 1909)
OriginAmerica, Tennessee, Hawkins County, Rogersville
MediumSynthetics and cotton
DimensionsOH: 78 3/8” x OW: 65 ½”
Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund
Object number2020.609.6
DescriptionThis is a rectangular quilt of solid synthetic textiles pieced in a pattern of houses in red, lavender, yellow, cream, green, black, and beige. Eight houses, each having four windows, a door, and a chimney, are arranged to face each other symmetrically, four on either side of a center vertical green sashing strip. Embroidery stitches create flowers growing around the foundation of each house and blanket stitches outline windows, doors, and rooflines. A wide band of synthetic fabric forms a border on all four sides. The border fabric is taken to the back and hemmed in running stitches to form an edge. The object is quilted through cotton batting and synthetic backing in approximately six stitches per inch in outline and parallel rows patterning.
Stitches: buttonhole, lazy daisy, knots, outline, running, straight
Label TextEight houses face each other on either side of a central vertical band in this colorful variation on the typical “Schoolhouse” pattern. The strong graphic appeal is further enhanced by the use of shiny synthetic fabrics in bright solid colors. Each house is embellished with charming embroidered flowers around the foundations and bordering the windows, doors, and rooflines.

According to family tradition, Margaret Carr, an African-American schoolteacher from Rogersville, Tennessee, made the quilt or inherited it from her mother. Margaret appears in the 1940 United States census for Hawkins County, Tennessee. She was 31 years old and living on North Church Street with her parents George and Lema Carr. Although she had completed four years of college, Margaret was working as a cook in a private home at the time of the census. However, by the 1950s, Margaret was teaching at Rotherwood Elementary School and The Saunders Chapel School in Rogersville. When the chapel school closed in 1954, Ms. Carr was transferred to Rotherwood. Margaret remained single until at least 1971, when the local Rogersville Review newspaper reported that Miss Margaret Carr hosted a meeting of the Woman’s Home and Foreign Missionary Society of Russell Chapel Church at her home on Church Street. Russell Chapel was an African Methodist Episcopal Church.

ProvenanceAccording to family tradition, Margaret Carr, an African-American schoolteacher from Rogersville, Tennessee, made the quilt or inherited it from her mother, Lema Carr.