Every quilt has a story to tell. Behind each stitch lies a memory, a moment in time captured by the hands that created it.
At the New Brunswick Museum, our collection of over 400 quilts spans three centuries, each piece offering a unique window into the lives of those who created them – from practical household items to treasured family heirlooms.
The New Brunswick Museum’s quilt collection began to take shape in 1927 with the acquisition of its first piece of bedding. Today, the collection includes 411 quilts and other bedding items.
In the past, quilts were often seen as practical household items, made by women as part of their domestic duties. A tradition in New Brunswick held that a woman should prepare a dozen practical quilts and one more elaborate one for her trousseau. This tradition ensured that quilts were a common sight in many homes.
However, it wasn’t until the 1960s and 1970s that quilts began to be recognized as more than just functional items. As the feminist movement gained momentum, so did a renewed interest in traditional crafts like quilting. Suddenly, quilts were seen in a new light – as works of art that offered a window into the lives of the women who made them.
“Now we look at quilts in a far broader way […] as one of the ways that we hear women’s voices from the past,” said Peter Larocque, New Brunswick Museum Curator, New Brunswick Cultural History and Art.
“As quilts are examined more and more, we’re able to gain access to how women lived, how they worked, and how they communicated. So those quilts have become more than just objects, they’ve become statements.”
One of the oldest quilts in the collection is a hand-sewn and hand-quilted woolen whole cloth quilt, dated between 1770 and 1800. Found in Campobello, Charlotte County, New Brunswick, this remarkable piece is part of the John Corey Domestic Textiles Collection. Image 1 showcases this historic quilt.
The collection also includes an intriguing “crazy quilt” made by Violette Emily Dibblee and Carlysle Eulalie Hopkins in Saint John, New Brunswick, between 1886 and 1888. This unusual quilt incorporates portraits of “Vie” and “Bev” (Violette Emily Casey married Beverley Newton Howard Dibblee on March 29, 1886) in the form of photographic images printed on silk. Images 2 and 3 display the intricate details and unique personal elements of this extraordinary quilt.
Family collaborations are also represented in the collection. A quilt by Celia Elizabeth Lapointe and William Edward Lapointe of St. Marys, York County, created between 1940-1950, demonstrates how husbands and wives sometimes worked together on these textile projects. He did the drawings onto the pieces and she embroidered them and made them into a quilt. Images 4, 5, and 6 show this collaborative work featuring cartoon characters including Popeye and “Der Inspector” from the Katzenjammer Kids.
Many of the Museum’s quilts were donations of John J. Corey, a historical consultant from Butternut Ridge, Havelock, who developed a specialization and interest in textiles. Corey not only collected historical quilts but also designed quilts and had them produced. Images 7 and 8 present two related quilts: a historic “Tulips Quilt” by Tressa Annie Thorne (1920-1930), and a quilt appliquéd by Retta Lucy Hicks based on Thorne’s earlier design.
While the New Brunswick Museum has a superb collection of historical quilts, it’s also working to keep the collection up to date with contemporary New Brunswick quilting. Late member of the Marco Polo Quilters Guild Kathy Coffin approached the Museum about adding a contemporary quilt to the collection every two years through the guild’s biannual show. Coffin designed and sold a block based on the provincial flower and used the funds from the pattern to purchase the first piece for the biennial, juried New Brunswick Contemporary Quilt Award.
Images 9, 10, and 11 showcase the first three winners of the New Brunswick Contemporary Quilt Award:
- “Railways in a Northern Land” by Donna K. Young, Fredericton, NB, 2004
- “When Compasses Collide” by Juanita Allain, Riverview, NB, 2002-2006 (After Sheila Wintle)
- “Baltimore Bouquet” by Gail Fearon, New Line, NB, 2011 (After Mimi Dietrich)
The most recent winner of the award, “Baltimore Bouquet” by Gail Fearon, is based on a mid-19th century style of quilt that incorporated a sampling of different blocks. Called Baltimore Album quilts, they became extremely fashionable along the eastern seaboard. This quilt is an especially valuable addition to the Museum collection since there are no historic examples of Baltimore Album quilts represented in the collection. Image 12 shows this award-winning quilt on display with (from left to right) Gail Fearon, award recipient; Carolyn Wishart, President of the Marco Polo Quilters’ Guild; and Peter J. Larocque, New Brunswick Museum Curator, New Brunswick Cultural History and Art.
