Family Tree

Halloween was quickly approaching when I received a text message from my aunt that proved to be an amazing treat. Opening the message I was met with pictures of her and other relatives she was visiting holding up a pair of brightly colored blankets. She explained that they had these two family quilts but wanted to know if I would be interested in them. One had a lot of different colors though mostly shades of red, green, beige, and white, which she said dated back to the 1800s. The other was blue with various species of birds embroidered on them which was supposedly started by my grandpa (her father) and his sister but never completed. I was surprised to be offered them before other relatives. But my love of history is well known among my family and being familiar with museums and collections care most likely had something to do with it.

Of course my response was yes! Followed by considerable excitement for the rest of the day. Though I do embroider I had never done any real quilting before but immediately started asking sewing and crafting friends to help teach me. So I had one work-in-progress quilt that offered an exciting project and one that was close to 150 years old and had passed through multiple generations of my family. While the quilting process is still ongoing (perhaps a future story), the older of the two would spark another project of its own. My aunt who had the quilts initially had done a lot of genealogy research and along with the quilts passed on notes and copies of pages from books she had collected. This included a handwritten note dating the quilt and saying it was made by Esther Russell, possibly as a “death quilt” for her father-in-law Reuben.  This and genealogy records of the Russell family mentioning that Reuben Russell died from “injuries suffered in a fall out of a hay mow” in 1875 left a lot of room for interpretation, and admittedly there was no indication of the source identifying it as “death quilt.”  But it certainly sparked the imagination.  Trying to research the concept I found that quilting could often be tied to mourning.  In the mid-nineteenth century wakes for deceased loved ones were held in the family’s own home.  The body may have been rested on or covered with a blanket such as a quilt while friends and family came to pay their respects before the burial.  Another possibility is the practice of quilting as part of a mourning process.  The scraps of cloth used to create the quilt design may have had some connection or significance for the deceased but the act of quilting itself brought people together to talk and offer support and comfort. This fit with my own experience with a lot of textile work, mainly that it keeps the hands busy and can be meditative thanks to repetitive patterns. But is also very easy to do while talking and enjoying the company of others.

In addition to helping me complete the second quilt, my friend also identified the design as a pattern called “tree of life.” This symbol of life, connection, and the cyclical nature of the world combined with the idea of a “death quilt” immediately struck me as intriguing. It seemed a perfect embodiment of something I’ve always loved about family heirlooms and historical artifacts, that is the link they provide between generations. Here I was holding something that was made by the hands of ancestors who passed away long before I was born, with so many generations between I never even heard anecdotes about them until this quilt came into my life. Even more fascinating was thinking about the journey this quilt made. Researching the Russell family revealed that Reuben lived and died in Pennsylvania, meaning Esther would have made the quilt in Pennsylvania. Her first five children were born in Windham, Pennsylvania but her sixth child, the same daughter who I am directly descended from, was born in Kansas. This branch of my family would continue to live in various parts of the west coast, taking the quilt with them, ultimately working its way back to me in New York.

I loved the idea of a quilt created in the wake of death but also being present for multiple births, maybe even giving comfort to newborns and expectant mothers as well as the everyday moments of life. A relic that saw so much of my family’s history as it passed from generation to generation, crossing the country not once but twice. And that was where the idea for the prose poem “Wrapped in Memories” was born. I wanted to really capture the sense of time passing but also the common threads that run through the human experience in any time and how one ending becomes another beginning. The poem follows the quilt from its creation through traveling west. As I tried to envision what other events could be highlighted I was reminded of the story of how my grandpa and grandma met and letters between him and his mother about his decision to get married. Although his work-in-progress quilt itself makes no appearance in the poem it was exciting for me to include a glimpse into his story as the two quilts had come to me together. Plus, I always thought my grandparents romance had all the makings of an interesting story, something the poem only scratches the surface of.

While I love just about everything I do in living history I have to admit textiles have come to occupy a special place in my heart. Not only are the final results often absolutely stunning but the more I learn about the process of creating them the more amazed I am. From turning raw fibers into thread and then making that thread into fabric through weaving or knitting, mastering dyes and color as well as precise measurement and planning, and adding decorative touches to finally creating something both beautiful and, in most cases, useful in one way or another. Society would not have made it far without protection from the elements, warmth, cleaning aids, and so many other small but critical needs that in most places textiles can provide for us. This love for textiles appears in a few of my writing pieces throughout my life, and probably will in future ones. But “Wrapped in Memories” represents not only this appreciation for textile arts in general but also the love that goes into the making, keeping, and handing down of these objects. It also has the added personal significance of something so close to my own family history. And now, thanks to the expert advice of work friends and my own research, I can proudly say that the quilt is carefully stored in archival quality materials and will hopefully be around for me to pass on and able to witness many more generations to come.