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

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1570036101 ISBN 13: 9781570036101

Publisher: University of South Carolina Press, 2005

Mary Black's Family Quilts utilizes a remarkable collection of sixteen quilts to tell the story of a family through six generations and access the material behavior associated with quiltmaking 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 women of the family, 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.

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.

Review:

"Mary Black's Family Quilts represents an intriguing blend of South Carolina history, social history, material culture, and women's studies for academics and general readers alike. Laurel Horton's thorough research into the Black family history spans generations and her engaging narrative gives us an incredibly personal portrait of the ordinary women who made these delightful quilts."