Mississippi Quilts Exhibit Closing Soon
Stories Unfolded, the inaugural special exhibit in the Two Mississippi Museums, will close on Sunday, October 14. The exhibit features thirty-eight quilts and two quilt tops that were stitched over the course of nearly two centuries by a diverse array of quilters.
The oldest quilt on display was made by Mary Stovall in Hinds County between 1830 and 1845. Stovall used factory-made indigo-dyed cotton to hand stitch the quilt, which features a Princess Feather and Eagles pattern. Because her husband and sons fought in early American wars, the eagles in the design are thought to represent her family’s military service.
Among the more recently made quilts is Geraldine Nash’s “The Hands That Picked the Cotton, Now Help Pick Presidents,” made in 2008. Nash was inspired by a similar phrase civil rights leader Charles Evers used as he campaigned for mayor of Fayette, Mississippi, in the 1970s.
Other renowned Mississippi quilt makers represented in Stories Unfolded include Martha Skelton, Tammy McGrew, and Hystercine Rankin.
“When Patti Carr Black was director of the Mississippi History Museum, she made collecting folk art, including quilts, a priority,” said MDAH Museum Division director Lucy Allen. “As a result of her efforts, we hold more than two hundred quilts in the collection.”
Stories Unfolded is free and open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday in the FedEx and Medgar and Myrlie Evers exhibition halls on the second floor.
An exhibition catalog is available in the Mississippi Museum Store for $16 plus tax.