Going West!: Quilts and Community

Going West! Quilts and Community presents, in striking colour, over 50 19th-century quilts either made, or transported along the great migratory wagon trails, and reveals the essential role that quilts and quiltmaking played in the lives of frontier women.

Pioneers heading for a new life in the Nebraska Territory packed their wagons with necessities that almost always included quilts, which were used as sturdy domestic bedding along the trail, or packed tenderly in the trunk as a tie to all that had been left behind. The quilts have been selected by independent curator and co-author Sandi Fox, with an essay on the history and social context of quilt-making by leading quilt scholar Roderick Kiracofe.