NSCA Quilts: Connections

Dr. Carolyn Ducy at the International Quilt Museum started the connections between some NSCA quilts by connecting the Emma Fish Album Quilt (Daughters of the American Revolution Museum), Emmeline Fish Album Quilt (International Quilt Museum), and the Fish/Perrine Album Quilt (Denver Art Museum). Through the Taylors and Machette/Vallettes we are showing connections to the Machette & Taylor Coverlet (Poos Collection), and the Machette/Vallette Album Coverlet (auction quilt.) Potentially the Sarah Flickwir Album Quilt (Philadelphia Museum of Art) is also connected through the Taylors, but we hope to be able to confirm that with an in-person research trip the end of May.

Additionally, several of these families were connected through businesses. Benjamin Fish and Samuel Stryker were listed as managers of the Trenton Manufacturing Company in a June 22, 1836 Philadelphia Public Ledger article. Samuel Stryker and four other Strykers appear on both the Fish/Perrine Album Quilt and the Emma Fish Album Quilt. Another newspaper article connects Samuel Stryker and Lewis Perrine as Directors of the Belvidere Delaware Railroad.

The names Stryker and Voorhees both appear on the Emma Fish Album Quilt (DAR) and connect us to another quilt, Sarah V.C. Quick Chintz Applique Quilt at the Briscoe Center at the University of Texas. Besides the family and business connections, there are shared fabrics present in these quilts. Finally, a number of these families were tied to and involved in the Female Benevolence Society of Trenton, NJ and the Vicinity. The organization had a record budget in 1843 when six of these quilts were being created. (Several of the quilts have exact matching dates which could be a meeting date for the Society.) The exception is the 1840 Machette & Taylor Coverlet which appears to have been created prior to the other quilts. To see all of the quilts together, please follow this link.