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The University of Texas at Austin

Collections

Strengths - Quilt History

The Winedale Quilt Collection is a premier scholarly resource that supports the study of quilts and their history. Its mission is to collect, preserve, and provide access to American quilts and quilt history materials documenting the role of quilts in American culture.

The Winedale Quilt Collection covers a broad range of American quilts and quilt making. It gives special emphasis to Texas quilts, including quilts made in Texas, quilts brought to Texas in the 19th century, and quilts displaying Texas-related subjects. The collection contains more than 400 quilts and spans 200 years of quilt making in the United States. The collection also features documentary resources to support research into the role of quilts in American culture, especially during the 20th century.

The Winedale Quilt Collection is housed at the Briscoe Center’s Research and Collections
Division in Austin and is open to all researchers by appointment only. For appointments, please contact the reference desk: (512) 495-4532.

Digital images and information on a selection of Briscoe Center quilts are available online in the Quilt Index, a project of the Alliance for American Quilts (www.quiltindex.org) and on the Briscoe Center’s website.

The Briscoe Center shares its quilts through exhibits and programs, including an annual quilt exhibit at its Winedale Historical Complex near Round Top, Texas.

If you have a quilt, quilt collection, or quilt history documentation that you would like to discuss donating, please contact the Center’s quilt curator, Kate Adams, (512) 471-0810.

Collection Highlights

Detail from Log Cabin, Courthouse Steps, circa 1860-1880. Ima Hogg quilt Collection, Briscoe Center, University of Texas at Austin.
 
Ima Hogg Quilt Collection Seventeen quilts (ca. 1780-1930) acquired by Texas philanthropist and decorative arts collector Miss Ima Hogg are the foundation of the Winedale Quilt Collection.
Detail from Diamond Field Quilt. Made by Kathleen McCrady, Fort Worth and Austin, Texas, 1963, 1975. Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.
 
Kathleen H. McCrady Quilt History Collection More than 60 quilts and quilt tops, including several made by this award-winning Texas quilt maker, plus vintage fabrics, quilt blocks, and quilt history documentation.
Joyce Gross Quilt History Collection Assembled by one of the foremost historians of 20th-century quilt making, the collection includes more than 170 outstanding examples of quilt artistry, as well documentary resources.
Reflections on 9/11 Quilt Collection The result of a three-year collaborative project, the collection’s 40 quilts began as 139 quilt blocks created by Japanese quilt makers immediately following September 11, 2001; the blocks were finished by quilt makers from Texas.