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Object Description
| Brief description | Crazy quilt, Thekla Thilmany, Kaukauna, 1890-1900. |
| Object name | Quilt |
| Alternate object name | Crazy quilt |
| Maker | Thilmany, Thekla Higsen |
| Date | 1890-1900 |
| Dimensions | 67"H x 60"W |
| Materials and techniques | Pieced and embroidered silk, satin, velvet, and other fabrics |
| Original location | Kaukauna, Outagamie County, Wisconsin |
| Current location | Appleton, Outagamie County, Wisconsin |
| Description | This crazy quilt is made up of assorted multicolored fabric scraps and embellished with colorful embroidery. The center block is black silk embroidered with a version of the first watermark of the Thilmany Pulp and Paper Company, Kaukauna, Wisconsin. Wide border of black velvet. |
| History |
Crazy quilts, named for their kaleidoscopic arrangements of brightly colored bits of rich satins and velvets, were widely popular in America in the late nineteenth century. For many women, creating a crazy quilt was like making a scrapbook. These collages of fabrics and embroidery contained images and materials that documented the lives of their maker and her family and friends. Thekla Higsen Thilmany of Kaukauna, Wisconsin placed a symbol of her husband Oscar Thilmany's successful career--the watermark of the Thilmany Pulp and Paper Company--at the center of her crazy quilt. She also included a personal detail from her domestic life--the four embroidered playing cards reflect Oscar Thilmany's fondness for card games. According to Else Thilmany Kretchmer, who donated the quilt to the Charles A. Grignon Mansion in 1959, her father "played scat almost every day of his life." Like many crazy quilt makers, Thekla Thilmany included images from popular culture alongside these personal symbols. In the second block of the second row, two Brownie figures are embroidered in yellow and white on brown velvet. Created by illustrator Palmer Cox in 1883, the Brownies were a band of tiny elf-like characters who appeared in a popular series of children's books and were used in advertising for the Kodak Brownie camera. |
| Sources | For more information on crazy quilts, see Penny McMorris, Crazy Quilts (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1984); Elizabeth V. Warren, "Show Quilts: The Collection of the Museum of American Folk Art" Folk Art 20, no. 1 (1995); Beverly Gordon, "Crazy Quilts as an Expression of 'Fairyland,'" Uncoverings 27 (2006), ed. Joanna E. Evans. For more on the Brownies, see "The Brownies" Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon (accessed December 12, 2007): http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/brownies/brownies.html A biographical sketch of Oscar Thilmany and the history of the Thilmany Pulp and Paper Company is found in the Commemorative Biographical Record of the Fox River Valley Counties of Brown, Outagamie, and Winnebago (Chicago: J. H. Beers and Co., 1895), pp. 588-91 (available online from the Appleton Public Library Local History Collection via the State of Wisconsin Collection): http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.aplRecords |
| Owner | History Museum at the Castle |
| Object # | 81.0918 |
| Rights | (c) 2007 by the History Museum at the Castle, Appleton, Wisconsin. Contact the owner for more information. http://www.myhistorymuseum.org |
| Digital collection | Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database |
| Digital identifier | OCHS001 |
| Digital format | XML |
| Type | Physical object |
| Keywords | Textiles; Crazy quilt; Quilt; Bedcovers; Bed coverings; Furnishings (artifacts); Furnishings and equipment; Bedding |
| Date digitized | 2007-12-12 |
| Date modified | 2010-11-23 |
Description
| Object name | Quilt: full view |
| Rights | (c) 2007 by the History Museum at the Castle, Appleton, Wisconsin. Contact the owner for more information. http://www.myhistorymuseum.org |
| Digital collection | Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database |
| Digital identifier | OCHS001a |
| Digital format | image/jpeg |
| Type | Physical object |
| Date digitized | 2007-12-12 |
| Date modified | 2008-01-15 |
