FROM FIELD TO FABRIC: THE ECOLOGICAL JOURNEY OF AMERICAN QUILTS
The American Folk Art Museum presents an innovative exhibition examining the natural history of quilts and their connections to agricultural production, industrial manufacturing, and international trade, revealing the environmental and social impact of this quintessentially American art form.
An Ecology of Quilts: The Natural History of American Textiles offers an eco-critical study based on the museum’s collection of over 600 quilts. The exhibition brings together approximately 30 examples, spanning the 18th to 20th centuries, presented from an ecological perspective that traces the relationships between the environment and traditional quilting practices.
Curated by Emelie Gevalt, Deputy Director and Chief Curatorial & Program Officer of the museum, and Austin Losada, Art Bridges Fellow, the exhibition explores not only the work of the quilter but also the origins of textile production and how it informs quilting mastery. It examines the environmental and social impact of cultivating and harvesting raw materials, the overland and maritime trade networks required to transport dyes, fibers, and fabrics, and the technologies developed to process them, such as the cotton gin.
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Floral Appliqué Quilt, United States, 1856, Cotton, 80 x 84 in., Gift of the Estate of Joanna Rose, 2023. Courtesy American Folk Art Museum
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Mary Alice Kenny-Sinton, Mala Pua Aloha / Garden of Aloha Quilt, Ponca City, Oklahoma, 1991, Cotton, 72 x 72 in., Museum purchase through funds provided by Northern, the Quilted Bathroom Tissue, made by James River Corp., 1991. Courtesy American Folk Art Museum
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Attributed to a Member of the Sinclair Family, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden Quilt, Possibly Vermont, Mid-19th century, Cotton, 87 x 92 in., Museum purchase with funds provided by Nina Beaty, 2024.Courtesy American Folk Art Museum
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Olivia Denham Barnes (1807–1887) and Louisa Denham Farnham (1804–1833), Stenciled Quilt Conway, Massachusetts, c.1830–1831, Cotton and paint, 83 x 72 in., Gift of In the Beginning Quilts, Inc., Seattle, 2002. Courtesy American Folk Art Museum
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Tree of Life Cut-Out Chintz Quilt, Probably Wiscasset, Maine, 1925–1935, Cotton, 96 x 90 in., Gift of Cyril Irwin Nelson in honor of Elizabeth V. Warren and Sharon L. Eisenstat, 2001. Courtesy American Folk Art Museum
According to Jason T. Busch, the museum’s Director & CEO, the exhibition casts American quilts in an unprecedented light, highlighting the diversity of artisans and the wealth of knowledge revealed by studying the ecological impact of historical textiles. Gevalt adds that the show encourages looking beyond quilts as recycling projects, raising questions about the environmental and social costs of their production across centuries.
Divided into thematic sections on color, fiber, and pattern, the exhibition explores the history of natural and synthetic dyes and their complex production; the making of fabrics from wool, cotton, linen, and silk; the origins of printed motifs and patterns; global trade of goods; and the historical engagement of quilters with the natural world. Highlights include the use of indigo, cultivated in 18th-century South Carolina, and chintz patterns that energized the American textile market in the 18th and 19th centuries.
An Ecology of Quilts also emphasizes the diversity of people and communities involved in quilt and textile production, showcasing the range and ubiquity of quilting as an art form. Featured artisans include Malissia Pettway, the St. Louis tailor who repurposed men’s suiting wool into brick-patterned quilts, retired sociologist Dr. Raymond F. Bellamy, and contemporary textile artist Tomie Nagano. The exhibition also includes quilting and textile traditions from Hawaii and Oaxaca, Mexico, reflecting the breadth and universality of quilting as an art form.
The exhibition will be on display from September 26, 2025, until March 1, 2026, at American Folk Art Museum, 2 Lincoln Square, New York City (United States).
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