Baltimore Album Quilts: Jacksonian Block

Kay and I have been researching and studying Baltimore Album Quilts (BAQ) for quite some time. (Kay longer than I.) There have been many good researchers who were also interested in this topic and provided insights into the BAQ’s. So, we hesitated to wade into this topic, beyond the basic information in our Hidden Treasures book.

However, we have been continuing our research and would like to share some of the insights we’ve uncovered. I’ve set up a Pinterest page to track these quilts available at this link. It is a work in progress, so if you want to add a quilt to the page or more information about the specific quilt, please email me at Lori@quiltandtextilecollections.com.

Old Quilts” by William Rush Dunton was my first exposure to the Jacksonian Heart, through the Jackson Victory Commemorative BAQ. Marylou MacDonald (author of the 2008 BAQ Engagement Calendar) first mentioned the “Jacksonian Heart” to Kay in July of 2018. She had been able to purchase a Jackson Heart block with the inscription “Andrew Jackson’s Heart Hero of the Battle of New Orleans.” The block was dated 1846 and she had located 3 other quilts with the same inscription. After some research, we noticed variations in the block including a 5-pointed star that was sometimes placed in the heart and occasionally includes the word Texas. One of the blocks isn’t heart shaped but has oak leaves and the Texas star with the word.

I’ve located more than 25 (and counting) of these Jacksonian Hearts and have gathered them together in a section of the Pinterest Page at this link. Jackson died in 1845, and in one of his final Presidential acts he recognized the Republic of Texas. In some of the quilts, the heart appears upside down which can be a symbol of grief when someone has died. The oak leaves from oak trees represented in several of the blocks may relate to a myth that Andrew Jackson camped out beneath the Sunnybrook Oaks in Louisiana on his way to the Battle of New Orleans. However, instead it may factually relate to the time he camped under Jackson’s Oak near Daphne, Alabama. Stay tuned as we continue to detail other blocks in Baltimore Album Quilts and collect the images on Pinterest.