Harriet Powers

Infobox Artist
bgcolour = #EEDD82
name = Harriet Powers


imagesize = 168px
caption = Photograph of Harriet Powers (1901)
birthname = Harriet Powers
birthdate = birth date|1837|10|29|mf=y
location = Clarke County
deathdate = death date and age|1910|1|1|1837|10|29|mf=y
deathplace = Clarke County
nationality = American
field = Quilting
training =
movement =
works = "Bible Quilt 1886"
"Bible Quilt 1898"
patrons =
awards =

Harriet Powers (October 29, 1837 – January 1, 1910) was an African American slave, folk artist and quilt maker from rural Georgia. She used traditional appliqué techniques to record local legends, Bible stories, and astronomical events on her quilts. Only two of her quilts have survived: "Bible Quilt 1886" and "Bible Quilt 1898." Her quilts are considered among the finest examples of nineteenth-century Southern quilting. [ [http://www.earlywomenmasters.net/powers/index.html Harriet Powers] Early Women Masters] Her work is on display at the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts.

Biography

Early life

Powers was born to slaves near Athens, Georgia. For most of her life she lived in Clarke County, mainly in Sandy Creek and Buck Branch.

Career

In 1886, Powers began exhibiting her quilts. Her first quilt was shown at a cotton fair in Athens; it is this quilt that is now in the Smithsonian Institution. Jennie Smith, an artist and art teacher from the Lucy Cobb Institute, saw the quilt at the fair and asked to purchase it, but Powers refused to sell. The two women remained in touch, however, and when Powers met with financial difficulties five years later, she agreed to sell the piece for five dollars. At the same time Powers explained the imagery on the quilt; Smith recorded these explanations, adding notes of her own in her personal diary.

The history of the second quilt is unclear. One account suggests that it was commissioned by the wives of faculty members of Atlanta University, who had seen the first quilt at the Cotton States Exhibition in Atlanta in 1895. According to another source, the quilt was purchased in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1898. Whatever its origins, the piece was presented to the Reverend Charles Cuthbert Hall of New York City, who was serving as the chairman of the university's board of trustees at the time. The reverend's heirs sold the quilt to collector Maxim Karolik, who then donated it to the museum in Boston.

Powers died on January 1, 1910, and was buried in the Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery in Athens. Power's grave was rediscovered in January 2005.

Work

Bible Quilt 1886 and Bible Quilt 1898 consist of numerous pictorial squares depicting either biblical scenes or celestial phenomena. Hand and machine stitched, they were made through appliqué and piecework, demonstrating both African and African American influences; they are notable jt from sms for their bold use of these techniques in storytelling. The reason for Powers' interest in celestial bodies is unclear; it has been suggested that they had religious significance for her, or were related to a fraternal organization of some sort. Her interpretations of both quilts have survived, though they likely have been influenced by their recorders. Powers herself may have been illiterate, and might have used the quilts as teaching tools.

Harriet Powers biographies

*Fader, Ellen. (March 1, 1994). "Stitching Stars: The Story Quilts of Harriet Powers." An article from: The Horn Book Magazine. Publisher: Horn Book, Inc. Volume: v70 Issue: n2 Page: p219(2).
*Rizzoli. (April 15, 1994) "Harriet Powers's Bible Quilts." Publisher: Rizzoli. ISBN 0-8478-1653-2
*Lawrence, Jacob. (January 1, 1997). "Harriet and the Promised Land." Publisher: Aladdin. ISBN 0-689-80965-4
*Lyons, Mary E. (December 1, 1997) "Stitching Stars: The Story Quilts of Harriet Powers." Publisher: Aladdin; Reprint edition. ISBN 0-689-81707-X

References

* [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.com/nge/Article.jsp?path=/TheArts/VisualArts/18thand19thCenturies/IndividualArtists-1&id=h-2577 New Georgia Encyclopedia entry.]

Hicks, Kyra. "Black Threads: An African American Quilting Sourcebook." Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2003. ISBN 0-7864-1374-3

ee also

*African American art
*Baltimore album quilts
*Counterpane
*Duvet
*History of quilting
*History of slavery in the United States
*NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt
*Patchwork quilt
*Patchwork
*Quilt
*Quilting

External links

* [http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1549/A_Queen_of_Folkart_Harriet_Powers African American Registry: A Queen of Folkart, Harriet Powers!]
* [http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/reform/jb_reform_powers_1.html African-American Folk Artist Harriet Powers.]
* [http://www.historyofquilts.com/hpowers.html Harriet Powers: A Freed Slave Tells Stories Through Quilting.]
* [http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug97/quilt/harriet.html Southern American quilting: Harriet Powers.]
* [http://www.marleneobryantseabrook.com/powers2.html Tributes via Quilts.]

Persondata
NAME= Powers, Harriet
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Harriet; Powers
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Quilter
DATE OF BIRTH=October 29, 1837
PLACE OF BIRTH=Clarke County
DATE OF DEATH=January 1, 1910
PLACE OF DEATH=Clarke County