Page 40 - JOA August 2020

The Sears Contest Search found a written eye-witness account of the quilts on display at the Sears
The search began when Barbara Brackman was living in Chicago in Pavilion in 1933. Dr. William Rush Dunton Jr. visited the display and
the late 1970s. She knew about the Sears Quilt Contest and visited the recorded descriptions that often include the quilt name, pattern, colors,
headquarters to ask about contest archives. They had a few photos and and quilting designs. As of June 2011, 235 quilts were in the database
a catalog page listing the top 30 winners. kept by Merikay Waldvogel.
Barbara decided to try to find all thirty quilters to document their
stories and their quilts, reaching out to local newspapers, mentioning Do you have a Sears Contest Quilt?
the search during workshops and lectures, and writing for a variety of Over 24,000 quilts were entered in the contest and we have only
Quilters’ publications. As the word spread, she began to get referrals. found information on a small percentage. We have winners’ names that
I met Barbara Brackman at the Southern Quilt Symposium in were printed in newspapers, and of course, the top 30 winners’ names
Chattanooga in 1984. A Sears Contest quilt showed up at a Quilts of and home towns which were published in the Sears Catalog. The list of
Tennessee survey day. In 1990, when I wrote Soft Covers for Hard known entrants and prize winners is listed on the Quilt Index.
Times: Quiltmaking and the Great Depression, I included a chap- If you have a quilt that has a
ter on the Sears Contest as it played out in the South. contest entry tag sewn to it or it
Following the publication of Soft Covers, Brackman proposed has a ribbon attached, this is the
we write a book together solely devoted to the Sears Contest. We best proof that the quilt was actu-
pored through the quilt stories that had been referred to ally entered in the contest.
Brackman and chose several for the book. We also renewed our Ribbons are strong evidence
quest for new discoveries. that a quiltmaker won a prize in
When the book Patchwork Souvenirs of the 1933 World’s Fair the contest though not necessarily
was published in 1993, the list with a particular quilt.
of found quilts totaled 95. An If a quilt has world’s fair
exhibit of the quilts in the book imagery, the Sears Pavilion, or the
organized by the Knoxville dates 1833-1933 appliquéd to it, it
Museum of Art and Smith was likely made for the contest.
Kramer Fine Arts traveled to ten
museums. With publicity about Merikay Waldvogel is the author of
the book and exhibit, more Patchwork Souvenirs of the
contest quilts appeared. 1933 World’s Fair with Barbara
Brackman, among many other titles
When the exhibit tour ended on quilting and the many studies she
in 1996, more than 150 quilts and fellow experts in the field have
had been found. Both of us conducted on the topic. Waldvogel is
continued to write and lecture a 2009 inductee to the Quilter's
about the contest. I even Hall of Fame. Waldvogel’s lectures
acquired two of my own contest and workshops are her true gifts to
quilts – one via an online people in the quilt world.
auction that still had an entry The Quilt Index (qultindex.org) is
tag attached and one commem- an open-access, digital repository of
orative quilt I named “A Bird’s thousands of images, stories, and
Eye View of the World’s Fair information about quilts and their
makers drawn from hundreds of
Site” also with a tag attached. public and private collections
The Sears Contest Project for the Quilt around the world. User tools, such as
Index provided an opportunity to share what search and compare, facilitate
we have found. For this project, only the inquiry and education. The Quilt
most fully-authenticated contest quilts were Index is a digital humanities
selected for this online repository. Quilts with research and education project of Michigan State University’s Matrix:
good color photographs received preference, The Center for Digital Humanities & Social Sciences.
but not all the important quilts had color pho-
tos. All the final round quilters’ names are Top of page: Photo of the top 10 winners on display in the second
included even though some quilts are still year of the Sears Pavilion Century of Progress exhibit on display.
missing. Fortunately, quilts were often Center, top-bottom: Judges publicity photo admiring the winner, a
photographed for local newspapers. When flyer with the list of winners, a publicity photo of the winning quilt,
available, we have used those photos. We also and at the bottom a colof photo of the willing quilt with detail.
38 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles