Mrs. Harriet Powers collection (picture and descriptive letter), 1886.

  1. Resources
  2. View Resource

ArchivalResource

Mrs. Harriet Powers collection (picture and descriptive letter), 1886.

https://sclfind.libs.uga.edu/sclfind/view?docId=ead/ms1412.xml

The collection consists of a picture of a quilt made by Harriet Powers which is now housed in the Smithsonian. Also included is a Xerox letter written by Jennie Smith describing the quilt as well as giving a key to the individual squares.

2 items (0.1 linear feet).

eng, Latn

Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7306242

Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Related Entities

There are 2 Entities related to this resource.

Powers, Harriet, 1837-1910

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62z33z1 (person)

Harriet Powers (born October 29, 1837, Clarke County, Georgia – died January 1, 1910, Clarke County, Georgia), American folk artist and quilter. Born into slavery in rural northeast Georgia, she married young and had a large family. Until the end of the American Civil War, Powers was enslaved by John and Nancy Lester in Madison County, Georgia. After the American Civil War and emancipation, she and her husband became landowners by the 1880s, but lost their land due to financial problems. ...

Smith, Jennie, 1862-1946.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6843cjj (person)

Harriet Powers is one of the best-known southern African American quilt makers, even though only two of her quilts, both of which she made after the Civil War (1861-65), survive today. One is part of the National Museum of American History collection at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The second quilt is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The cotton quilts consist of numerous pictorial squares depicting biblical scenes and celestial phenomena. They were constructed through app...