Comfort and Glory

Two Centuries of American Quilts from the Briscoe Center

By Katherine Jean Adams

SERIES: Focus on American History Series

University of Texas Press

Quilts bear witness to the American experience. With a history that spans the early republic to the present day, this form of textile art can illuminate many areas of American life, such as immigration and settlement, the development of our nation’s textile industry, and the growth of mass media and marketing. In short, each quilt tells a story that is integral to America’s history.

Comfort and Glory introduces an outstanding collection of American quilts and quilt history documentation, the Winedale Quilt Collection at the Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. This volume showcases 115 quilts—nearly one-quarter of the Winedale Collection—through stunning color photographs (including details) and essays about each quilt’s history and construction. The selections span more than two hundred years of American quiltmaking and represent a broad range of traditional styles and functions. Utility quilts, some worn or faded, join show quilts, needlework masterpieces, and “best” quilts saved for special occasions. Texas quilts, including those made in or brought to Texas during the nineteenth century, constitute a significant number of the selections. Color photographs of related documents and material culture objects from the Briscoe Center’s collections—quilting templates, a painted bride’s box, sheet music, a homespun dress, a brass sewing bird, and political ephemera, among them—enrich the stories of many of the quilts.

Quilt history is, in a very real sense, women’s history. It should be preserved and studied, and the Briscoe Center is uniquely suited to do both. It’s past time for this growing treasure of textiles and scholarship to be more widely known. Karey Patterson Bresenham and Nancy O’Bryant Puentes, from the foreword

Comfort and Glory is an eloquent description and historical account of 115 quilts held in the Winedale Quilt Collection, a premier scholarly resource for the study of quilts and their history. No other published source is available for these quilts. The author’s erudite presentation of each item is enhanced by studied detail that would please the most precise professional quilt appraiser. Genealogists, amateur family historians, textile artists, and general readers will also like this book. Kathryn Ledbetter, Texas State University, author of Victorian Needlework

Katherine Adams demonstrates a deep understanding of quilts and textiles. Her detailed descriptions of the materials and construction of each quilt, along with the illustrations, make this publication valuable to collectors, quilt makers, and museum professionals. Jennifer M. Swope, Assistant Curator, David and Roberta Logie Department of Textile and Fashion Arts, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and coauthor of Quilts and Color: The Roy/Pilgrim Collection

Katherine Jean Adams is quilt curator at the Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin, where she served as associate director for twenty-one years. A trained historian, she also coedited and contributed to Inside the Natchez Trace Collection: New Sources for Southern History.