NEWS RELEASES FEATURING THE GALLERY
 

African-American Quilts from the Robert & Helen Cargo Collection   
October 3, 2003 - February 29, 2004
The Textile Museum in Washington, DC
An exhibition featuring African-American quilts from the South, primarily Alabama. Quilts from this region represent an important chapter of American quilt history and reflect the diverse traditions that merge to form the American quilting heritage.  To view the museum's website for the exhibition, click here.

We are pleased to have been asked to supply period photographs of Bill Traylor to accompany publications over the last few years. These include BILL TRAYLOR 1854-1949: DEEP BLUES (Berne: Dumont, 1999) and Lynda Roscoe Hartigan's "Going Urban. American Folk Art and the Great Migration," AMERICAN ART: SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM, Summer 2000.

It consists of 42 separate, appliquéd blocks, each different design, with the majority representing botanical motifs. Arranged six blocks by seven blocks, the majority are signed or initialed. The quilting stitches, although not elaborate, are fine and even, most of them outlining the appliquéd shapes within the blocks. The quilting--constructed in a diamond-set, half inch-square pattern--is a simple but elegant, and the binding is carefully sewn.

Applique
Ladies of Green and Hale Counties, Alabama
Mount Hebron Community
Green County, Alabama, c. 1858
Cotton
90 inches x 104 inches

Though the makers of the quilt must have been familiar with the Baltimore album quilt design, it was clearly not made in Baltimore. All of the plants on this quilt grow in the South and several--the pear, fig, sweet gum, and the watermelon--grow primarily in the deep South, making it a particularly rare and unusual example.

It was published in Black Belt to Hill Country: Alabama Quilts from the Robert and Helen Cargo Collection, 1981-1982, exhibition catalogue from the Birmingham Museum of Art and Montgomery Museum of Fine Art and Southern Folk Art, Rubin, Birmingham, Alabama, 1985. It was also part of the Southern Folk Art exhibition produced by the Museum of American Folk Art, curated by Cynthia Rubin that traveled to six locations in 1985-1986.

The quilts are from the collection of Dr. and Mrs. Robert Cargo of Tuscaloosa. Dr. Cargo is a professor emeritus of the University of Alabama and owner of the Fold Art Gallery. A donation from the Robert and Ardis James Foundation and from the Cargos made the transaction possible.

Dr. Cargo began collecting quilts in the 1950s "on a teacher's salary." He concentrated on those made in Alabama, and in the '80s, began to focus specifically on quilts made by African-American quilters within the state. "These quilts have qualities that excite me as I grow older; they are bold, eccentric, idiosyncratic, improvisational, and brightly colored." He eventually amassed approximately 2000 quilts, tops, and quilt-related items.

Following his retirement in 1990, Dr. Cargo says he began to think about what to do with the quilts. He made donations to other museums, but when approached by IQSC in Nebraska, says he initially was reluctant to have the quilts leave Alabama. He was finally convinced upon realizing the quilts would receive quality care and would find a wide audience. IQSC has promised that the collection will remain intact.

At the time of this writing, the final selection of quilts had not yet been made, but it is expected that the works of 25 to 30 quilt makers will be represented in the collection, including Yvonne Wells, Roberta Jemison, Nora Ezell, and Lureca Outland.

The first selection of quilts from the Cargo Collection will be exhibited at UN's Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery in Lincoln from February through April 2001. Contact the IQSC at 402-472-6549 for more information.