Baltimore Album Quilts
Timeless Beauties

Why Are These Nineteenth Century Gems
Called “Baltimore Album Quilts”?

by Patricia L. Cummings

Once thought to be quite rare, those elaborate appliqué quilts of the mid-19th century called “Baltimore Album” quilts, have been found to number more than three hundred. Let’s first look at their name. “Baltimore” refers to the seaport city in Maryland where most of these quilts were made.

The second part of the nomenclature, “Album,” refers to the similarity of the quilts to the scrapbook albums kept by young girls of that time period. Many Baltimore Album quilts have Signatures and inked inscriptions.

Psychiatrist William Rush Dunton, Jr., M.D. wrote Old Quilts, in 1946, after having collected Baltimore Album Quilts since the 1920s. The photo above is included in that detailed study. Dunton, has been nicknamed "The Father of Occupational Therapy."

The habit of saving signatures of friends, verses, and inked drawings, as well as pressed and dried flowers, in a small diary or book parallels the design elements of the quilts. The most intricate and highly valued of all quilts ever made, old Baltimore Album quilts sell for more than $200,000. when they (rarely) become available for auction. Fortunately, many of these quilts now reside in the permanent collections of museums, including the Daughters of the American Revolution  Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Maryland Historical Society.

To date, the quilt that has fetched the most amount of money at auction is a folk art quilt that depicts both the Civil War and Restoration periods of American history = $264,000.

Short-Lived Run

According to historian Jennifer Goldsborough, the fad of Baltimore Album Quilting lasted only about 10 years, between 1846 and 1854, although earlier and later dates have also been identified, (as early as the beginning of the 1840s, and as late as 1865). The trend may have ended, in part, due to the Civil War which turned the country’s attention to other more pressing matters of life and death, and the production of soldiers' quilts and needed supplies.

Dr. Dunton’s Re-Discovery of These Quilts During the Early Twentieth Century

The name “Baltimore Album Quilt” is actually a term coined by William Rush Dunton, Jr., M.D., a psychiatrist associated with the Sheppard-Pratt psychiatric hospital of Baltimore, who is credited with having re-discovered these quilts. A relatively amazing point of information is that he “shared” the dozen or so quilts in his collection by putting them on display in the hospital for his patients to enjoy.

In 1946, he self-published two thousand copies of a book simply entitled Old Quilts. In this limited edition volume, he documents his Baltimore Album quilts in a minute fashion. The book originally sold for $4.50, but today, one is lucky to find a copy at all. Within the last year, some copies have sold on e-Bay for more than three hundred dollars. Dr. Dunton’s landmark efforts to preserve knowledge of Baltimore Album quilts has recently won him posthumous induction into the Quilter’s Hall of Fame in Marion, Indiana.

Book Review of Old Quilts, Quote

Anna Wells Rutledge reviewed Old Quilts at the time of its publication. In a copy of the review that was reprinted from The Maryland Historical Magazine, Volume XLII, No. 1, she says this:

In Maryland quilts are found such familiar sights as the Washington Monument, Godefroy’s Battle Monument, a local bricklayer’s home, the monument to a hero of the Mexican War, mementoes of a fire company and, of course, the B. & O. R. R. engine and coach filled with passengers - the latter protected by window curtains.

She is correct in surmising that the quilts very much relied on everyday visuals: the Clipper ships in the harbor, vases of flowers, and symbols borrowed from fraternal organizations. Three interlocking rings of the same size is an Odd Fellows' symbol which represent Truth, Love, and Friendship. This motif is often seen in Crazy Quilts of the Victorian Age.

Baltimore Album quilts have the common factor of all having been appliquéd. Some blocks are much more elaborate than others by the use of layers and inked and embroidered embellishments. Some blocks consist of only one layer of appliqué and are based on the use of paper cut designs that are symmetrical. Inked sketches of buildings, and inked or embroidered details such as names, dates, initials, and verses, all find a home on these quilts.

Names Preserved in Permanent Brown Ink

We marvel at some of the unusual names that were inked onto the surfaces of these old quilts. In her book review, Ms. Rutledge comments upon the following names that sound “odd” to us today:  “Arianna, Zibiah, Milcah, Kitturah, Achsah,” and others. A permanent brown ink had been invented shortly before the Baltimore Album craze and it was that particular ink which was used to preserve quiltmakers’ names for posterity.

Be careful, though, because it cannot be automatically assume that a name on a specific block means that the block was made by that individual. Sometimes other names were added to these group-made quilts, for various reasons. Also, it seems that the person with the best “hand” was often asked to inscribe the blocks. There is clear evidence to support this theory.

Quilting Good for “Nervous Ladies”

In bringing these quilts back into our collective awareness in the early twentieth century, Dr. Dunton has become a part of their history, too. The good doctor was fascinated by quilting as a therapeutic aid for “nervous ladies,” as he called them. He and his wife, Edna, both believed that doing handiwork went a long way toward improving one’s mental health. Dunton co-founded The National Society for the Promotion of Occupational Therapy in 1917. As a result of his pioneering ideas and published articles, Dunton earned himself the title of “Father of Occupational Therapy.”

Middle Class Effort

In looking at census records and other information, researchers have concluded that Baltimore Album quilts seem not to have been made by the very rich nor by the very poor, but by the wives of the growing merchant class in the then second largest city of the United States.

Historians see the quilts (most of which were intended as gifts) as a reflection of:

1) the availability of imported fabrics in this seaport city, as well as cloth from growing local textile industry;

2) an outgrowth of the wish to present lasting tributes to beloved ministers (especially those of the Methodist faith who were reassigned to a new parish every two years);

3) and as a tangible expression of the trend toward gentility and generosity among at least a certain segment of the city’s population. In addition, quilting may also have afforded some stability in the lives of women by providing safe and creative interactions a society engulfed by social change.

German and English Populations of Baltimore

At the time, Baltimore’s population was divided evenly between German immigrants and people of English descent. Many of the paper-cut quilt patterns are believed to have originated in the Scherenschnitte tradition of the Germans. Indeed, the Pennsylvania German communities were responsible for much of the Red and Green Appliqué tradition of the mid-nineteenth century and for the initial idea of creating Sampler Quilts with each block being at least sixteen inches square and each featuring a different design. These trends influenced both the styling and coloration of the Baltimore Album Quilts.

The quiltmakers of English origin engaged in techniques familiar to them in their homeland, such as broderie perse, (Persian Embroidery), a closely-rendered, buttonhole stitch used to appliqué pieces of expensive, imported, Chintz fabrics onto a background cloth. Women from England also possessed refined abilities in surface embroidery. This may account for many of the embroidered details on some of the quilt blocks some of which utilized wool yarns, a familiar fiber for those who do Crewel Embroidery. In England, many bedcoverings had been decorated in this manner.

Bridal Album Quilts

Not all Baltimore Album Quilts were given to ministers. Some were presented to brides. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, all-white wholecloth quilts were popular wedding gifts. By mid-century, Baltimore Album Quilts, made by a circle of close friends and relatives, became the quilt of preference, to be replaced at the end of the century with the Double Wedding Ring design. According to Quilts in America by Patsy and Myron Orlofsky (Abbeville Press, 1974), elaborate block images on Baltimore Album bridal quilts could include image related to the bride’s past or future life, or might depict her future home, or sometimes even contained symbols.

Freedom Quilts and Presentation Quilts

Baltimore Album Quilts were called "Presentation Quilts” or “Freedom Quilts.” These quilts would be given to a young man at so-called “Freedom Parties” when he turned 21, or when he reached the end of his apprenticeship.

Politically-Inspired Baltimore Album Quilts

Other quilts and quilt blocks were inspired by politics. One such quilt, now owned by the Shelburne Museum, was made to honor Major Samuel Ringgold, a popular Mexican-American War hero (1846-1848). The specific quilt block dedicated to him depicts a temporary monument which was erected in Baltimore to honor him, shortly after his demise. Seven or eight identical blocks have been found on other Baltimore Album quilts and seem to have been designed by the same person. As historian Jennifer Goldsborough points out, the supporting evidence for this theory is that the blocks all contain the same anomaly.

An Interesting Aside

The Mexican-American War is responsible for the image of cacti on so many Baltimore Album Quilts. People in this country were just fascinated by cacti, a formerly unknown plant here, which became very popular to have in one’s home during that time.

Harrison-Tyler Campaign Spawns a Number of Blocks

Another political quilt block is testimony to the rivalry between incumbent Democrat, Martin Van Buren, and William Henry Harrison in their campaign quest for the presidency in 1840. The block appears not only on the Crowl quilt but on other quilts as well and is a pictorial log cabin scene which appears to be just charming folk-art until ones learns the story behind the block’s creation. (For more historical information about this block, please see The Quilter magazine, March 2004).

Lilly "Death Watch" Quilt

One particular album quilt made in Baltimore was stitched at the bedside of a dying man, Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical magnate. Relatives and friends signed each block and Lilly, himself, signed the Lyre quilt block. This elegant quilt can be seen in the book, Quilts in America, along with a photo of five of the six sisters who worked on the Lilly Family Album Quilt.

Who Designed All These Quilts?

This brings us to the question: Who actually designed all the blocks in these exquisitely done quilts, surely not the same person?

Researchers have concluded that there were at least three different designers, but possibly as many as five or six. This conclusion was reached after studies compared similarities between numerous examples of Baltimore Album quilts held in the Maryland Historical Society, (which owns the largest collection of these quilts).

Seven Unfinished Blocks Yield Clues

When seven basted but unfinished Baltimore Album quilt squares were found in a trunk belonging to the late Mary Evans (Ford), it was initially presumed that young Mary Evans had been the designer “mastermind” behind the blocks found on Baltimore Album Quilts. After looking at census records of the time, this idea was questioned, for presumably Mary Evans would have too young at the time to have created that volume of work. Besides that, upon closer examination, it was clear that the seven blocks had been made by “at least three hands.” After the initial discovery of these blocks, they “disappeared” and were held family hands for decades, before being acquired by the Maryland Historical Society in 1990.

Elly Tracks the Making of a Myth

Elly Sienkiewicz examined the creation of the myth that Mary Evans was the primary designer of Baltimore Album Quilts. In a featured article called, “Mary Evans, super quilter?” in The Magazine Antiques, January 1990, with excerpts from a research paper presented to the American Quilt Study Group and printed in their journal, Uncoverings 1989, Elly explores how an assumption took on a life of its own to become this myth, and how the misinformation was reinforced and inadvertently promulgated by other writers. The tracing of the evolution of this myth has done a great deal of good, if only to lead researchers into further work to determine who the real designers were.

Diary Uncovers Clue

Luckily, a researcher reading a diary entry written by a young Quaker woman, Hannah Mary Trimble (b. 1826- / d. - after 1878), pinpoints one of the designers by name.

The entry revolutionized the school of thought that Mary Evans had been the supreme designer of Baltimore Album quilts. Trimble mentions a trip with her aunt to “Mrs. Simon’s in Chestnut St. The lady who cut & basted these handsome quilts- saw some pretty squares.”

Mary Simon, now known to researchers as “Designer I,” was born in 1810 as Marianna Hergenrother (the name, according to Ronda McAllen) and was an immigrant from Unterleichtersbach, Bavaria, arriving in the United States in 1839. She married Philip Simon at St. James Catholic Church in Baltimore, in 1844, and she died in 1877.

She did, indeed, live on Chestnut St. in 1850. Her husband was a carpet weaver and his work probably influenced the motifs she selected in her quilt designs. In A Maryland Album: Quiltmaking Traditions: 1634-1934, Nancy Gibson Tuckhorn states that the “elaborate and sophisticated designs (of Mary Simon) are similar to the complex floral motifs seen on woven carpets popular with the middle class in mid-century Baltimore and elsewhere.”

Mary Simon designed, basted, and probably sold quilt block “kits.” As a Catholic, Mary would not have been part of the Protestant or Jewish groups who made the quilts. Therefore, she appears to have been more likely to have sold rather than given away the block designs. No specific Baltimore Album Quilt, in its entirety, has yet been linked to her as a quiltmaker.

Ronda McAllen is currently researching two other women also mentioned in the Trimble diary entry: Elizabeth Sliver, and Maria Williams. Her preliminary hunch is that both of these women would "have had greater exposure to the development and making of Broderie Perse chintz quilts, possibly the forerunners of the BAQ" - (Baltimore Album Quilt). Research is ongoing.

Three Major Designers Acknowledged

The characteristics of the work of the three major designers have been written about by Jennifer Goldsborough. The name of Mary Simon is associated with elegant red baskets of flowers, floral wreaths, eagles whose bodies consist of
“exotic wood-grain print brown fabric,” or sometimes a distinctive, shaded blue fabric with a value range from a rich regal blue to a lighter blue, in gradated hues.

Fabric of this kind was known as either “rainbow,” “ombre,” or “fondu” fabric and was also produced decades later at the end of the nineteenth century. Some of them appear on Crazy Quilts. (Current Baltimore Album revivalists wish that a fabric company would reproduce this lovely fabric).

Mary Simon also favored three-looped blue bows, Chintz flowers, and pieces of large scale home furnishing fabric in pink and red.

Designer II, as yet not identified, preferred to create blocks with large, symmetrical, padded, Turkey-red flowers, that were embroidered with satin stitches and silk floss, to give them a three-dimensional look.

Designer III, also unidentified, enjoyed creating large flowers that were copies from Indian or Persian fabrics, and which “resembled early embroideries,” according to Goldsborough. These quilt blocks sometimes include animals and insects, and utilized wool cloth or wool embroidery threads for detailing.

Just a Handful of Designers

We have seen that the Baltimore Album Quiltmaking Tradition appears to have relied on the artistic sensibilities of only a handful of designers. The ensuing quilts were usually group efforts and most often were designed as gifts for clergymen. However, these often signed quilts were made for other notable occasions such as weddings, political commentary, and life transitions.

All of the quilts demonstrate the quilter’s wish to create something of lasting beauty. The fact that many of these quilts were tucked away and never used has ensured their passing from generation to generation, revered, saved, and cherished and finally, given to museums for their custodial care. We are indebted to all of those individuals who have helped to preserve this rich legacy, and to the many who have helped to research, document, and re-create patterns for these quilted treasures.

The Baltimore Album Revival of the Last Twenty Years

There are a number of contemporary researchers and quiltmakers who have helped to create the recent interest in the re-creation of Baltimore Album quilts. Dena Katzenberg, the curator of a two-year traveling exhibit (1980-82), is to be much thanked for her work. Her exhibition catalog is still much in demand, though scarce, and it sells at a high price if one is lucky enough to find a copy. Jennifer Goldsborough, probably most known throughout art, academic, and museum circles for her writings on Baltimore Album quilts has led much effort to their study. Dr. Nancy E. Davis, curator of a show of Baltimore Album quilts that journeyed to Japan, is also a very knowledgeable person on the subject.

Undoubtedly, the most commonly recognized expert among Baltimore Album revivalist quiltmakers is Eleanor Hamilton Sienkiewicz, (Elly), who has shared her love of these quilts in her countless number of books on the subject. Elly was recently honored at the Houston Quilt Festival for all that she has given to the quilt community through her teaching, her writing, and her inspiration.

Countless other quiltmakers carry on the tradition that celebrates the art of domesticity and the love of creating beauty through means of the needle. We applaud all who would carry on the Baltimore Album legacy.

©Copyright 2004. Patricia and James Cummings, Quilter's Muse Publications, Concord, NH.

For more information and patterns for Baltimore Album Quilts, please see the following books and articles:

Baltimore Album Quilts, Dena Katzenberg, Baltimore Museum of Art, June 1981.

Baltimore Album Revival, Elly Sienkiewicz, C&T Publishing, 1994.

Baltimore Beauties and Beyond, Vol. I., Elly Sienkiewicz, C&T Publishing, 1989.
Baltimore Beauties and Beyond, Volume II, Elly Sienkiewicz, C&T Publishing, 1991.
Baltimore Bouquets, Mimi Dietrich, That Patchwork Place, 1992.    

Lavish Legacies, Jennifer F. Goldsborough, Maryland Historical Society, 1994.

Miniature Baltimore Album Quilts, Jenifer Buechel, That Patchwork Place, 1997.

Old Quilts, William Rush Dunton, Jr., M.D. published by the author in Catonsville, MD, 1946.

Papercuts and Plenty, Volume Three of Baltimore Beauties and Beyond, Elly Sienkiewicz.

Spoken Without a Word, Elly Sienkiewicz, Turtle Hill Press, 1983.

The Baltimore Album Quilt Tradition, Nancy E. Davis, Maryland Historical Society, 1999. Produced in conjunction with the exhibit in Japan, 1999/2000.

The Magazine Antiques, "Mary Evans, Super Quilter?" by Eleanor Hamilton Sienkiewicz, January 1990, 156, 178, 180 (as noted in Uncoverings, 1994).

Uncoverings 1994, Volume 15 of the Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group, edited by Virginia Gunn. “Baltimore Album Quilt Studies,” Jennifer F. Goldsborough, 73-110.

For appliqué patterns created from authentic Baltimore Album Quilts, please contact the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum at
(202) 879-3208. There are two bed-size quilt patterns available: one for a Mary Simon Quilt Top, and one called the Mary Mannakee Quilt with its lovely red and green blocks.

Pat, 

I enjoyed your article on BA quilts... one of my 
favorite topics. I have studied them since about
1990, when I arranged to have Elly Sienkiewicz come
to Iowa to teach for both our state guild & our 
local guild (so some of us got to take several classes,
as members of both groups.

I have been to Baltimore several times to stand in awe
in front of the BA quilt exhibits... and also had the 
opportunity to visit the DAR when they did a quilt study
day ... and got to touch several BA quilts with my white
gloved hands (trying hard not to drool on them).

I attended Elly's first Appliqué Academy in Annapolis, MD,
and have a block that I stitched in one of her books. 
Elly is a charming lady, and she has certainly done much
to bring the BA quilts to the attention of the quilting 
and non-quilting public over the last 20 years.

However ... I found it very interesting, when visiting 
Baltimore ... to find that in the very cradle of the BA 
quilts ... Elly is not the teacher who is associated with 
BA appliqué. Mimi Dietrich is the one who has taught and 
encouraged the contemporary quilters in the Baltimore area
with their special - regional quilt format. Mimi also 
teaches all over the country, and has written many popular
books, some on appliqué and some on other techniques. Her
"Baltimore Bouquets" book offers "simplified" designs in 
the BA style ... which novices find less intimidating than
some of the spectacular but very detailed blocks in the
old quilts. 

I am hoping you might add a sentence or two regarding Mimi's 
contributions to the BA revival ... as I feel she is often
overlooked due to the volume of books that Elly has published.
So, thanks for your consideration!!

Karan Flanscha from soggy NE Iowa