Catalog #: 1975.329.1
Donors: Wynona C. and Adelle McClain
This stunning crazy quilt was used as a piano cover in the McClain home west of Rogers. The quilt was begun in the 1890s but finished some years later.
The dedication block is embroidered, "E.A. Hargis to her daughter R. Eatmon, Wilmot, Ark. 1896."
By the time she came to Rogers, E.A. Hargis was known as Elizabeth Gaines. A widow, she had married William Gaines, and Rosa Eatmon was her daughter by a previous marriage. The Gaines, Eatmons, and another related family, the McClains, all came to Rogers from south Arkansas in the early 1900s.
The families all established fruit farms west of Rogers in the vicinity of the
junction of Dixieland Road and Walnut Street. William died in 1907 soon after
the family came to Rogers, and the quilt eventually passed into the McClain
branch of the family.
As is typical of the crazy quilt style, this quilt is covered with lavish
embroidery depicting birds, bees, flowers, butterflies, and even a little girl
tooting a horn and carrying a flag. The crazy quilt fashion emerged in the late
1870s and was inspired by the Oriental design craze following the popularity of
the Japanese Pavilion at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.
This type of quilt was called "crazy" because the pieces were of varying shapes
and sizes. Crazy quilts were usually made of rich, luxurious fabrics and were
embroidered at the very least along the seams. By the 1880s crazy quilts were
all the rage, but by 1900 they had begun to go out of style.
What makes this particular quilt so interesting is that it combines the "crazy"
with an overall pattern. While each block is made of pieces of different sizes
and shapes, the quilt as a whole has a Circle Upon Circle pattern. The result is
truly a work of art.