Mary Black's Family Quilts: Memory and Meaning in Everyday Life (Paperback)

~ (Author), Michael Owen Jones (Foreword) "TO UNDERSTAND THE WAYS quilts were made and valued by Mary Snoddy Black and her family, it is useful to examine first the lives of..." (more)
Key Phrases: different printed fabrics, quilt detail, thick cotton batting, Mary Black, Mary Kate, South Carolina (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A lavishly illustrated exploration of quilting across six generations. "Mary Black's Family Quilts" utilizes a remarkable collection of sixteen quilts to tell the story of a family through six generations and to document with scholarly and aesthetic insights the material behaviors associated with quilting traditions. The daughter of a prominent farmer, Mary Louisa Snoddy Black (1860-1927) is remembered in the Spartanburg, South Carolina, region for the hospital named in her honor and for the philanthropic foundation that continues to support community health and wellness. Laurel Horton explores the even more tangible legacy Black left to her descendants - trunks full of quilts made by the Black family women, each labeled with detailed information about its origin and significance. Pairing the information from the labels with research culled from interviews, letters, and public documents, Horton stitches together the family's history across the fabric of two centuries as she explores the roles of women as keepers of home, hearth, and history in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. Valuable both as artistic creations and as historical artifacts, the Black family quilts reflect decades of work, familial interactions, economic philosophy, and personal and communal values. Suggesting that quilts were exchanged as a mode of currency in an informal, female-centered economy, Horton uncovers the clues they hold about the people who made and used them in their daily lives. From the whole-cloth quilt made by Black's great-grandmother around 1850 to examples from the early twentieth century, Horton traces changes in style, material, and functions of quilts. In doing so, she dispels popular misconceptions associated with these pieces of Americana. "Mary Black's Family Quilts" also includes a foreword by Michael Owen Jones, professor of culture and performance, University of California, Los Angeles, and author of Craftsman of the Cumberlands: Tradition and Creativity.

About the Author

Laurel Horton is an independent folklorist and internationally recognized textile scholar. A native of Kentucky, she holds an M.A. in folklore from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The principal author of Social Fabric: South Carolina's Traditional Quilts, she was curator of an exhibition of the same name at the University of South Carolina's McKissick Museum. Horton directed the South Carolina Quilt Project and has published more than thirty articles on quiltmaking traditions. She lives in Seneca, South Carolina.

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: University of South Carolina Press (January 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570036101
• ISBN-13: 978-1570036101
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,021,136 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't expect a quilter's handbook here: this is local history at its best, March 6, 2006

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Laurel Horton is an independent folklorist and textile scholar who examines the family quilting traditions of six generations in Mary Black's Family Quilts: Memory And Meaning In Everyday Life. Sixteen quilts here tell the story of the family, a South Carolina legend - and reveals the trunks full of quilts Black left to her descendants. Don't expect a quilter's handbook here: this is local history at its best.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent material, May 12, 2007

By	Linda Rivetto - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As I am currently studying Historic Preservation, I appreciate what it takes to do research. This book is well-researched, and interesting, to boot.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mary Black's Family Quilts: Memory and Meaning in Everyday Life, January 11, 2007

By	R. Riley - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was somewhat disappointed that there was not a more extensive use of primary source materials. This is an easy book to read and understand.