The Smithsonian
Collections
Timeline
Resources
Slavery & Abolition
Abraham Lincoln
First Blood
Soldiering
Weapons
Leaders
Cavalries
Navies
Life & Culture
Appomattox
Winslow Homer
Mathew Brady
Home
Site Index
Comments
     
 



Close-up of flag

See more

Mary Hughes Lord, quilt maker

 

 




 

Patriotic autograph quilt


This quilt was made about 1860 by Mary Hughes Lord of Nashville, Tennessee. The quilt is composed of colored silk hexagons, one and three-quarter inches wide, pieced into rosettes separated by black silk hexagons. In the center is an American flag, the stripes inscribed with the names of Union generals and other luminaries in ink. The centers of some rosettes are similarly inscribed, and there are more names inscribed on the red, white, and blue silk ribbon border. Among the signatures are those of Abraham Lincoln and his son Robert, Ulysses S. Grant, Philip Sheridan, Winfield Scott, Benjamin Butler, James A. Garfield, and Chester A. Arthur. The throw was carried by Mary Hughes through the Confederate lines to Cincinnati, Ohio, where her family lived until the fall of Fort Donelson. It was later hung at Lincoln’s funeral.


Division of Social History, Textiles
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Behring Center
Gift of Rose H. and William Craige Lord

 

Home SI