Description: Plum-colored bed quilt with puff filling in medium-sized squares. Embroidered with floral designs, including a central cartouche of several types of flowers and garlands and individual flowers on three sides. The quilt has a darker shade of silk cord fringe on all four edges.
Historical Note: Author Lucy Virginia Smith French (1825-1881) lived in McMinnville and Beersheba Springs during the period of the Civil War. We know from her diaries that Mrs. French grew roses, violets (blue, white and yellow), verbenas, fuschias, and geraniums. She embroidered this quilt with images of those flowers. The quilt won two awards at an 1859 exhibition and survived the war. It was donated to the Tennessee State Museum by her descendants.
Institution: Tennessee State Museum
Publisher: Digital Initiatives, James E. Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University
Rights: Images reproduced on this website are intended for individual, educational use only. For research inquiries about specific objects or requests for high resolution images, contact the Tennessee State Museum.
