Threads of Tradition:
Northwest Pennsylvania Quilts

October 11 - December 17, 1997

Priscilla Yocum, Hayfield Township, PA, Princess Feather Quilt, ca. 1860

Antique quilts tell personal tales of joy and grief, love and family, loss and celebration. Stories were told by these textile treasures in the Fall's major exhibition from October 11 through December 17, 1997 in the Erie Art Museum galleries: Threads of Tradition: Northwest Pennsylvania Quilts. The exhibit featured forty-six quilted objects created before 1940 in Erie, Clarion, Crawford, Forest, Mercer, Venango and Warren counties. Bed quilts, lap quilts, throws and pillows were included in the exhibit.

In 1996, the Pennsylvania Humanities Council-funded Northwest Pennsylvania Quilt Documentation Project completed its first phase. In this part of the project, over one thousand quilts were photographed and documented in a series of Quilt Discovery Days, which took place at sites throughout the region. The Sara Quilt, circa 1820, was the earliest existent quilt discovered during this process. In Phase Two the selected quilts were displayed in an exhibition at the Bowman, Penelec and Megahan Galleries in Doane Hall of the Campus Center at Allegheny College in Meadville, from September 9 through October 8, 1997, and at the Erie Art Museum from October 11 through December 17, 1997. Historic Quilts of Erie County identified in the project, were on display at the Erie County Historical Society, 419 State Street, from September 24 through November 21