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According to family history, Reverend Charles Cuthbert Hall received this quilt as a gift from a group of “faculty ladies” at Atlanta University in 1898. As Hall had recently become president of the Union Seminary in New York, the women may have commissioned or purchased the quilt from Harriet Powers as a tribute to his achievement. They also wished to thank Hall for his support of Atlanta University, founded in 1865 by the American Missionary Association to educate African Americans.
This quilt’s Old and New Testament scenes made it an appropriate gift for a Presbyterian minister. Harriet Powers also depicted four stories of natural phenomena and a morality lesson. Many of the events occurred before her birth. Powers’s inclusion of these non-Biblical stories attests to their lasting importance to the artist and her community.
View: Overall
Pictorial quilt
Harriet Powers (American, 1837–1910)
American (Athens, Georgia)
1895–98
Object Place: Athens, Georgia, United States
Medium/Technique
Cotton plain weave, pieced, appliqued, embroidered, and quilted
Dimensions
175 x 266.7 cm (68 7/8 x 105 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Maxim Karolik
Accession Number64.619
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAmericas, Fashion and Textiles
ClassificationsTextiles
According to family history, Reverend Charles Cuthbert Hall received this quilt as a gift from a group of “faculty ladies” at Atlanta University in 1898. As Hall had recently become president of the Union Seminary in New York, the women may have commissioned or purchased the quilt from Harriet Powers as a tribute to his achievement. They also wished to thank Hall for his support of Atlanta University, founded in 1865 by the American Missionary Association to educate African Americans.
This quilt’s Old and New Testament scenes made it an appropriate gift for a Presbyterian minister. Harriet Powers also depicted four stories of natural phenomena and a morality lesson. Many of the events occurred before her birth. Powers’s inclusion of these non-Biblical stories attests to their lasting importance to the artist and her community.
DescriptionAppliqué quilt, dyed and printed cotton fabrics applied to cotton. The quilt is divided into fifteen pictorial rectangles. Worked with pieces of beige, pink, mauve, orange, dark red, gray-green and shades of blue cotton.
This extraordinary quilt was created by Harriet Powers, an African American woman who was born into slavery in Clarke County, Georgia on October 29,1837. This quilt (together with Powers's descriptions and small portrait photograph) was presented by a group of "faculty ladies" at Atlanta University to a trustee by 1898. Powers had created a similar quilt around 1886, which had been exhibited at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta in 1895.
The following are Powers' descriptions of all fifteen blocks starting in the upper left and moving to the right.
FIRST ROW:
1. Job praying for his enemies. Job crosses. Job's coffin.
2. The dark day of May 19, 1780. The seven stars were seen 12 N. in the day. The cattle wall went to bed, chickens to roost and the trumpet was blown. The sun went off to a small spot and then to darkness.
3. The serpent lifted up by Moses and women bringing their children to look upon it to be healed.
4. Adam and Eve in the garden. Eve tempted by the serpent. Adam's rib by which Eve was made. The sun and the moon. God's all-seeing eye and God's merciful hand.
5. John baptizing Christ and the spirit of God descending and resting upon his shoulder like a dove.
SECOND ROW:
6. Jonah cast over board of the ship and swallowed by a whale. Turtles.
7. God created two of every kind, male and female.
8. The falling of the stars on Nov. 13, 1833. The people were frightened and thought that the end had come. God's hand staid the stars. The varmints rushed out of their beds.
9. Two of every kind of animal continued...camels, elephants, "gheraffs," lions, etc.
10. The angels of wrath and the seven vials. The blood of fornications. Seven-headed beast and 10 horns which arose of the water.
THIRD ROW:
11. Cold Thursday, 10 of February, 1895. A woman frozen while at prayer. A woman frozen at a gateway. A man with a sack of meal frozen. Icicles formed from the breath of a mule. All blue birds killed. A man frozen at his jug of liquor.
12. The red light night of 1846. A man tolling the bell to notify the people of the wonder. Women, children and fowls frightened by God's merciful hand caused no harm to them.
13. Rich people who were taught nothing of God. Bob Johnson and Kate Bell of Virginia. They told their parents to stop the clock at one and tomorrow it would strike one and so it did. This was the signal that they had entered everlasting punishment. The independent hog which ran 500 miles from Georgia to Virginia, her name was Betts.
14. The creation of animals continues.
15. The crucifixion of Christ between the two thieves. The sun went into darkness. Mary and Martha weeping at his feet. The blood and water run from his right side.
This extraordinary quilt was created by Harriet Powers, an African American woman who was born into slavery in Clarke County, Georgia on October 29,1837. This quilt (together with Powers's descriptions and small portrait photograph) was presented by a group of "faculty ladies" at Atlanta University to a trustee by 1898. Powers had created a similar quilt around 1886, which had been exhibited at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta in 1895.
The following are Powers' descriptions of all fifteen blocks starting in the upper left and moving to the right.
FIRST ROW:
1. Job praying for his enemies. Job crosses. Job's coffin.
2. The dark day of May 19, 1780. The seven stars were seen 12 N. in the day. The cattle wall went to bed, chickens to roost and the trumpet was blown. The sun went off to a small spot and then to darkness.
3. The serpent lifted up by Moses and women bringing their children to look upon it to be healed.
4. Adam and Eve in the garden. Eve tempted by the serpent. Adam's rib by which Eve was made. The sun and the moon. God's all-seeing eye and God's merciful hand.
5. John baptizing Christ and the spirit of God descending and resting upon his shoulder like a dove.
SECOND ROW:
6. Jonah cast over board of the ship and swallowed by a whale. Turtles.
7. God created two of every kind, male and female.
8. The falling of the stars on Nov. 13, 1833. The people were frightened and thought that the end had come. God's hand staid the stars. The varmints rushed out of their beds.
9. Two of every kind of animal continued...camels, elephants, "gheraffs," lions, etc.
10. The angels of wrath and the seven vials. The blood of fornications. Seven-headed beast and 10 horns which arose of the water.
THIRD ROW:
11. Cold Thursday, 10 of February, 1895. A woman frozen while at prayer. A woman frozen at a gateway. A man with a sack of meal frozen. Icicles formed from the breath of a mule. All blue birds killed. A man frozen at his jug of liquor.
12. The red light night of 1846. A man tolling the bell to notify the people of the wonder. Women, children and fowls frightened by God's merciful hand caused no harm to them.
13. Rich people who were taught nothing of God. Bob Johnson and Kate Bell of Virginia. They told their parents to stop the clock at one and tomorrow it would strike one and so it did. This was the signal that they had entered everlasting punishment. The independent hog which ran 500 miles from Georgia to Virginia, her name was Betts.
14. The creation of animals continues.
15. The crucifixion of Christ between the two thieves. The sun went into darkness. Mary and Martha weeping at his feet. The blood and water run from his right side.
ProvenanceAbout 1895-1898, Dr. Charles Cuthbert Hall (1852-1908), New York [see note 1]; 1908, by inheritance to his son, the Reverend Basil Douglas Hall (1888 - 1979), New York; between November 2, 1960 and February 7, 1961, sold by Hall to Maxim Karolik (1893-1963), Boston; 1964, bequest of Karolik to MFA. (Accession date: May 13, 1964)
NOTES:
[1] Commissioned and purchased for Hall, President of the Union Theological Seminary in New York, by the faculty ladies of Atlanta University where he had served as chairman of the board of trustees.
NOTES:
[1] Commissioned and purchased for Hall, President of the Union Theological Seminary in New York, by the faculty ladies of Atlanta University where he had served as chairman of the board of trustees.