Research Catalog

Title

Mary Black's family quilts : memory and meaning in everyday life / Laurel Horton ; foreword by Michael Owen Jones.

Author

Horton, Laurel

Publication

Columbia, S.C. : University of South Carolina Press, c2005.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Jones, Michael Owen

Description

xxii, 184 p. : ill. (some col.), geneal. table, map; 29 cm.

Summary

"Beautifully illustrated with thirty-two color and seventy black-and-white photographs, 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 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." "Valuable both as artistic creations and as historical artifacts, the 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."--BOOK JACKET.

Alternative Title

Family quilts

Subject

• Black, Mary Louisa Snoddy, 1860-1927 > Family
• Snoddy family
• Black family
• Quiltmakers > South Carolina > Biography

Genre/Form

Biographies

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [161]-178) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Who was Mary Black? -- "Arrived from Ireland and this day petitioned for land right": The first two generations of the Snoddy Family in South Carolina, 1773-1850s -- "I am doing the best I know how": Samuel and Rosa's family, 1850s-1860s -- "The spirit of kindness and generosity": Mary Snoddy's childhood and education, 1860s-1880s -- "Paid sweet to get sewing machine": Marriage and family in Wellford, 1890s -- "Let others live the rowdy life": The Black family in Spartanburg, 1890s-1916 -- "Her faith, her charity, and her talent for making friends": Mary's legacy to family and community, 1917-1996 -- "Let's share these quilts": The reemergence of Mary Black's quilts, 1990s.

ISBN

• 1570036098 (cloth : alk. paper)
• 1570036101 (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2005013004

OCLC

• 60375704
• SCSB-10944925

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library