In 1895, the quilt was shown at the Cotton Exposition in Atlanta. How do we know this? Because a group commissioned Powers to create another quilt after the Bible Quilt had once again gone on display. The narration and methodology of the Bible Quilt were evidently unique and admired. Harriet Powers, Pictorial Quilt, 1895, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA. A sense of movement is almost felt even though the figures may look simplified and abstract to our modern eye. ![]() With Powers’ narration, the blocks become the visual representations of the stories. Some of these descriptions include Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden (first block) Satan amidst the seven stars (third block) Jacob’s Ladder, which is also related to a slave song (second row, third block) and the Holy Family (last block). But in a lucky break for art lovers and historians, Powers described each block to Smith, who wrote the descriptions down. At that, Powers decided to sell, sadly parting from her beloved quilt. Powers offered to sell Smith the quilt at a price of ten dollars. Powers and Smith kept in touch, however, and in five years, both Powers and Smith were in financial difficulties. She felt attached to the quilt and didn’t want to sell it at any price. She recalled the “quilt-which ‘captured my eye’ and after much difficulty, I found the owner.” While on display at the fair, a local artist and an art teacher Jennie Smith saw the quilt. All eleven blocks are stories from the Bible, ranging from the creation to the birth of Jesus. But upon closer inspection and seeing each block as separate scenes, the quilt becomes a pictorial marvel, almost like a book full of visual scenes. Specifically, biblical visual scenes. At first glance, the blocks and figures may seem like a random assortment. Harriet Powers came into the spotlight when her Bible Quilt went on display at the 1886 Cotton Fair in Athens, Georgia. Harriet Powers, Bible Quilt, 1886, Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Washington, DC, USA. 2 thousand and 500 diamonds.” But it is a quilt that she made in 1886 that survived to this day in the Smithsonian Museum – the Bible Quilt. Powers mentioned that she made one of her quilts as early as 1882: “I composed a quilt of the Lord’s Supper from the New Testament. She actually references several other quilts that she made – indicating that she made at least five quilts. In a rare record from a Black woman at the time, Powers wrote a letter in response to someone who wanted to buy one of her quilts. ![]() It isn’t known if Powers was in any way aware of those styles, but the parallels are interesting, nonetheless.Īnd quilts aren’t the only thing Harriet Powers created that survived to this day. Beyond the strong narration, the patterns used are similar in style to textiles and the kingdom of Benin, of West Africa. Powers, on the contrary, made storytelling a central part of her quilts, using an unusually high number of figures. Many quilts at the time were primarily focused on patterns. Her quilts were both made post-Civil War, and are unusually rich in their narrative. Two Surviving Quiltsīoth of these cotton quilts were both hand and machine sewn, using piecework (sewing together pieces of fabric to create a large design) and the technically challenging appliqué method (stitching small pieces of fabric onto a larger fabric). ![]() Only two of her quilts have been known to survive to this day: the Bible Quilt and the Pictorial Quilt. Powers weaved her spiritualism into her quilts which is easily perceived through the individual blocks depicting biblical stories, local events, and celestial occurrences. Powers’ strength as an artist lies in what she was able to transmit through the fabric: her religious faith. Her husband left her and their farm in 1895. She gave birth to multiple children and spent her life as a housekeeper. She married young, and once she was emancipated after the Civil War, both she and her husband became landowners. She was born with slave status in Georgia in 1837. Little is known about the private life of Harriet Powers. It is especially surprising as experts deservedly consider her one of the most accomplished quilt makers of the 19th century. ![]() For much of the 20th century, the work of Harriet Powers, an enslaved and later emancipated Black folk artist, remained forgotten.
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