Quilt, Pieced Log Cabin African American

Date1910-1930

Maker Elizabeth Morris Bolden (1872 - 1948)

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Bath County, Warm Springs

MediumPlain and printed cottons

DimensionsOH: 82 " x OW: 69"

Credit LineGift of Perlista Y. Henry

Object number2017.609.1

DescriptionThis is a pieced quilt in a Log Cabin pattern with large black and light-colored stepped diamonds, with small areas of bright red. At least 32 different cottons are used in the piecing including prints, stripes, checks, plaids, and solids, with black predominating. In addition to black and red, other colors include creams, lavender, yellow, and blue. Typical of foundation piecing, the front textiles are stitched to a variety of backing fabrics that consist of forty-two squares arranged six wide by seven high. The quilt is edged with a one-inch folded black and tan check binding. The quilt is not backed.
Label TextThis fragile quilt represents the quilt making skills of a Virginia African-American woman. The quilt maker, Elizabeth Morris Bolden (1872-1948), was the daughter of Annie Crawford Morris, who was born into slavery, and Randall Cornelius Morris, a freeborn mulatto cooper of Warm Springs, Virginia. According to family history, Elizabeth made a good living working as a seamstress.
To create a Log Cabin quilt, the maker works from the center of a square out to the edges of each smaller unit, building up the design with carefully chosen rectangles of fabric that represent the intersecting logs of the cabin. Unlike more typical piecing, in which shapes are stitched together at the edges to make the whole, Log Cabin quilt pieces are assembled and stitched onto a foundation textile.
ProvenanceThis quilt, along with another (2017.609.2) and a work bag (2017.610.1), were made by Elizabeth Morris (Mrs. Charles Bolden) (1872-1948) and descended through the family to Elizabeth's great-granddaughter Perlista Henry who donated them to the museum.

History of Quiltmaker:
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Morris Bolden (1872-1948) was the daughter of Annie Crawford (1832-1917) and Randall Cornelius Morris, a freeborn mulatto. Annie Crawford was born into slavery in Warm Springs, Virginia. Her father was William Ervin (white) and her mother was African-American and Native American. Elizabeth Morris grew up on Fort Dinwiddie Farm in Warm Springs, Virginia. She married Charles Bolden, a coach driver for the Homestead Resort, and they had a daughter named Alice. In 1902, Charles, Lizzie, and Alice moved from the farm to a house in Warm Springs where Lizzie's great-granddaughter Perlista Henry lives today. Lizzie attended Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church. She provided clothes for her family and paying clients, which provided a good living. The family remembers that she used a Singer treadle sewing machine.