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Object Story: Log Cabin, Light and Dark Quilt
Unrecorded artist (American), Log cabin, light and dark quilt, Boston area, ca. 1870, cotton. Jonathan and Karin Fielding Collection, L2018.3.4
Pieced quilts are a very special and important part of American craft history and art-making. They also have a lot of stories connected to them. Whether through the meaning in the fabrics and materials used, or through their patterns, quilts provide us with many different ways to connect to history, both personally and collectively. Because of their popularity, quilts also lend themselves to lots of different stories and myths about American history and culture.
The general history of quilting is filled with myths about frugality and resourcefulness. Many people believe that early American quilters only made quilts from their left-over clothing scraps. We picture resourceful settlers without any other alternative making do with the little they had. While some quilters did use fabric left-overs (and “scrap quilts” make up their own genre), store-bought fabric was fairly cheap and easy to come by, even in America’s early days.
The Log Cabin quilt in the Fielding Collection was made by an unknown quilter in approximately 1870, which was a popular time for log cabin symbolism and nostalgia for the “old days” of the early American frontier. The early pioneer settler home, the log cabin, became an iconic symbol of the taming of the wild frontier and for achieving the American Dream itself. The log cabin symbol was so popular, a quilt style was named after it.
This style of quilt is called “Log Cabin” because of the pattern. It is made with a central shape, such as a square or a diamond, in the middle. This represents the hearth or fireplace, which is a place of warmth and activity in a log cabin. The center hearth square is surrounded by smaller strips of fabric (the “logs”), with four layers of lighter colored strips on one half and four layers of darker colored strips on the other.
Schmidt Litho. Co., printer, Log Cabin Brand, 1910-1920, color printed lithograph. | The Jay T. Last Collection of Graphic Arts and Social History, Huntington Digital Library
In 1863, Log Cabin quilts become very popular to help raise funds for the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was thought to be in honor of Abraham Lincoln, who grew up in a log cabin. Quilts continued to become very popular as our nation was nearing the year of its centennial in 1876. The 100-year anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence seemed like the perfect time to look at how far the nation had come, from log-cabin living to a prosperous civilization.
Log cabin, light and dark quilt
Log cabin, light and dark quilt
Unrecorded artist (American), Log cabin, light and dark quilt, Boston area, ca. 1870, cotton. Jonathan and Karin Fielding Collection, L2018.3.4
Around the World
The log cabin pattern isn’t unique to American quilting! Some of the earliest designs of a log cabin pattern design can be found through time and around the world.
William Henry Harrison
During his successful political campaign for president in 1840, William Henry Harrison could be credited with starting the log-cabin craze and being the inspiration for this quilt style. In his campaign advertising, he portrayed himself as a man of the common people who was born in a log cabin and drank hard cider (a popular drink with ordinary farmers). This was not true. He was born on a plantation to one of the wealthiest families in Virginia. But Americans love a rags-to-riches story, even if it isn't real. The log cabin imagery won him the support of the masses and the presidency. It was this same story of humble origins that made this quilt pattern so popular.
Log Cabin Presidents
Claiming to have been born in a log cabin was viewed as a positive characteristic of a good American. Six presidents were, in fact, born in a log cabin. They include Andrew Jackson, James Polk, Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, and James Garfield. Politicians wanted to use the image of a poor individual who rose to lead the country as a way of showing they understood the common person and were worthy of election.
Log Cabin Republicans
In 1970, individuals in California created a political organization called the Log Cabin Republicans to advocate for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans.
Their website explains:
“The name of the organization is a reference to the first Republican president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, who was born in a log cabin. President Lincoln built the Republican Party on the principles of liberty and equality.”
Questions for Discussion
- What’s one thing that you have with you—something in your pocket or your backpack, what you are wearing, or something else—that you think is uniquely American?
- When you think of log cabins, what images come to mind? Do they mean the same to you now as they did to people in the late nineteenth century?
- Whose point of view are we looking through when we hear the myth about America’s frontier? The frontier is often depicted in European and early American accounts as a wild space to conquer. How does the story of the American frontier change when we include Indigenous perspectives? What happens when we see the frontier as a space that was already someone’s home?
Suggested Activities
- Discuss the perceptions of log cabin and frontier imagery from different perspectives. Consider viewpoints from different groups of people, times in history, or cultures.
- Examine perceptions about the imagery of the frontier and the log cabin for people who have historically been left out of the mainstream story about America’s history.
- What’s a new symbol to replace the log cabin? The log cabin was drawn from everyday life. What is a contemporary symbol that could describe positive attributes about what it means to be American? Draw your new symbol and write a paragraph explaining the American attributes it symbolizes. Are there any myth-busting realities that should be explained about your symbol?
