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1840 Eliza Hussey's Masonic Symbols Quilt`

Object Details

Description
Eliza Rosecrans Hussey personalized her pieced wool-and silk-star quilt with symbols of the Masonic Society. The embroidered motifs are interspersed between twenty-five blocks pieced in a variation of the “Feathered Star” pattern. Another silk quilt in the Collection was also made by Eliza, and was embroidered with symbols and inscriptions of the Odd Fellows. Edward Simmons Hussey, her husband, was an active member of both the Masons and the Odd Fellows.
Eliza, born October 14, 1816, in Pennsylvania, went with her family to Indiana as a young child. She married September 17, 1835. Edward Simmons Hussey in Carlisle, Indiana. They lived in various Indiana towns while Edward worked as a merchant, hotel manager, book keeper, and express agent.
By 1860 they had settled in Brazil, Indiana, where Eliza worked as a milliner. There they raised their family of ten children. Eliza, after some years as an invalid, died March 23,1880. Her carefully designed and crafted quilts are a reminder of the importance of benevolent societies such as the Masons and the Odd Fellows in the developing towns and cities in the Midwest in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Location
Currently not on view
Data Source
National Museum of American History
quilter
Hussey, Eliza Rosenkrantz
Date made
1840
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Lucia K. Englehart
Physical Description
fabric, wool, silk, cotton, velvet (overall material)
thread, cotton, silk (overall material)
filling, cotton (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 75 in x 73 in; 191 cm x 186 cm
Object Name
quilt
Object Type
quilts

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