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   from the issue of March 9, 2006

     
 
Lecture to examine Underground Railroad quilting

How does a myth find its way into fact incorporated in school curriculums regarding the Underground Railroad? And how, of all things, do quilts become involved in the "fabrication" of such myths?

On March 22, Laurel Horton, a visiting fellow to International Quilt Study Center, will present the public lecture "The Underground Railroad Quilt Controversy: Looking for the 'Truth,'" 9 a.m. March 21 in Home Economics Building, room 31. Horton will follow the threads of stories of a "quilt code" supposedly used by slaves fleeing the south in the early 19th century.

Along with many other myths involving quilts the "quilt code" materialized in the 1980's during the post-Bicentennial revival of folk art. The earliest mention of a "quilt code" is a brief statement in a 1987 video saying quilts were hung outside Underground Railroad safe houses. A popular children's book "Sweet Clara" followed which romanticized a quilt-making heroine making her escape from slavery. Not long after, the book "Hidden In Plain View" was published. It was promoted by Oprah Winfrey and quilt shop owners, Code quilt kits were marketed to the multibillion-dollar quilters market, and antique dealers used the Code as a marketing tool. Scholars have since pointed out numerous discrepancies between the code and documented Underground Railroad history and earlier supporters of the story have begun to distance themselves from the myth.

Horton will discuss the phenomenon and provide context that will help separate fact from fiction.

Laurel Horton has worked with numerous museums and libraries to research and interpret information relative to "material culture": the physical or tangible creations that members of a society make, use, and share. She will be studying mosaic quilts from the renowned collection of the International Quilt Study Center.

Horton will also collaborate with IQSC curator Marin Hanson in preparation of selected entries for the collection catalog, a project sponsored by a grant from the Getty Foundation.

For more information, go online to http://quiltstudy.unl.edu or call 472-6549.


GO TO: ISSUE OF MARCH 9

ARTS HEADLINES FOR MARCH 9

MFA exhibition opens March 20
American Life in Poetry
AWARD WINNER
Book jacket, journal designs on display
Celtic musicians to treat Lied audience March 17
Classical guitarist to perform March 13
Family day at Sheldon March 26
'Human Aspect of Design' opens March 20 at Kruger
'La Petite Jérusalem,' 'The White Countess' open on March 17
Lecture to examine Underground Railroad quilting
Lux center designs new exhibition format
Student quilt art exhibit seeks entries
UNL's Haar to entertain at Free at 6 March 27

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