Artist: Maria Ewing Sherman Fitch
Date: 1888
Size: 200 x 203 cm
Technique: Cotton
The crazy quilt by Maria (“Minnie”) Ewing Sherman Fitch commemorates the military legacy of her father, Major General William T. Sherman (1820-1891). Known by Sherman descendants as the Grand Army Quilt in reference to the Civil War veterans’ fraternal organization, Fitch’s hand-sewn homage is strewn with embroidered military insignia denoting Union Army branches and ranks, and corps badges (worn by soldiers on their uniforms) with accompanying corps numbers. Fitch incorporated two reunion ribbons, presumably her father’s, among the patchwork. Sherman commanded the Department of the Cumberland from 1861 to 1862, the Army of the Tennessee from October 1863 to March 1864, and the Military Division of the Mississippi—comprising the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Ohio departments—from 1864 to 1866. He succeeded Ulysses. S. Grant as commanding general of the Army in 1869 and retired in 1883. Crazy quilts were typically created as showpieces, and the Grand Army Quilt’s highly unusual shape suggests a non-functional purpose, most likely display on a parlor surface.
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