"The Circuit Rider's Quilt"

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Textiles

About 1868

Made by members of the Class of Low Chapel, United Brethren Church
Miami, Ohio, United States

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Textiles

Title: "The Circuit Rider's Quilt"
Place: Ohio (Object made in:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1857–1867
Medium: Appliquéd quilt; dyed and printed cotton plain weave fabrics; cotton thread and metallic braid embroidery; ink signatures
Inscriptions: "Presented to the Rev. G. C. Warvel / by / The Class at Low Chapel / Miami A.C.U.B.Ch.-" (inked, upper right corner) Individual signatures in sepia ink
Dimensions: 215 × 241.5 cm (85 3/4 × 95 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Emma B. Hodge
Reference Number: 1919.535
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/76021/manifest.json

Art Institute of Chicago, Applied Arts Fourteenth Annual Exhibition, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1915), cat. 1030.
“The Romance of the Circuit Rider Expressed in Patchwork,” Illustrated Needlework: The National Needlework Magazine 2, no. 1 (Winter/January 1923): 24-25.
“Here and There: Old Quilt” Hamilton Evening Journal (June 25, 1932): 6.
“The Romance of the Circuit Rider in Patchwork,” Woman’s World: The Magazine of the Country (July 1932) (diagram ill.).
Carrie Hall and Rose Kretsinger, The Romace of th Patchwork Quilt in America (Caldwell, ID: Caxton, 1935), 40-41.
Elizabeth Wells Robertson, American Quilts (New York: Studio Publications, 1948), 53, 112.
Mildred Davison, American Quilts-1819-1948-From the Museum Collection, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1959), cat. 33.
Mildred Davison, American Quilts from the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1966), pl. 33 (detail ill.).
“The Romance of the Circuit Rider in Patchwork” [partial reprint], Nimble Needle Treasures: The Quilters Quarterly Magazine 5, no. 1 (Spring 1973).
Jenifer Dick, Th Circuit Rider’s Quilt: An Album Quilt Honoring a Beloved Minister (Kansas City, MI: Kansas City Star Books, 2008).
Susan Price Miller, “The Circuit Rider’s Quilt: Reality and Romance,” in Uncoverings: Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group, ed. Laurel Horton, vol. 29 (2008), 11-42, https://kora.quiltindex.org/files/35-90-317/Uncoverings2008-A2.pdf Accessed October 29, 2024
Judith A. Barter and Monica Obniski, For Kith and Kin: The Folk Art Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012), 12-13, fig. 5 (ill.)..

Art Institute of Chicago, Applied Arts Fourteenth Annual Exhibition, Oct. 17-Nov. 3, 1915, cat. 1030.
Art Institute of Chicago, American Quilts-1819-1948-From the Museum Collection, Apr. 20, 1959-Oct. 19, 1959.
Art Institute of Chicago, Quilts from the Permanent Collection, Nov. 8, 1978–Jan. 21, 1979.
Art Institute of Chicago, Folk Art Gallery, Department of American Arts, May 3–Dec. 5, 1984.
Art Institute of Chicago, Making Memories: Quilts as Souvenirs, Elizabeth F. Cheney and Agnes Allerton Textile Galleries, Oct. 20, 2017–Apr. 1, 2018.

Rev. G.C. Warvel (1826-1903), Hamilton, Ohio, about 1868 [this and the following according to inscription; Hamilton Evening Journal, June 25, 1932, 6; Miller 2008; Susan Price Miller, personal communication, May 16, 2025, recorded in curatorial object file]; by descent to his daughter, Elizabeth Warvel (died 1941), Butler County, OH, from 1903; sold. Emma B. Hodge (1860-1928; born Emma Blanxius), Chicago, by 1915 [Applied Arts Fourteenth Annual Exhibition 1915; Day Book 9, 34, Apr. 10, 1919; copy in Institutional Archives]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1919.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.