Harriet Powers


Harriet Powers was an American folk artist, and quilt maker. She was born into slavery in rural Georgia. She used traditional appliqué techniques to record local legends, Bible stories, and astronomical events on her quilts. Only two of her quilts are known to have survived: Bible Quilt 1886 and Pictorial Quilt 1898. Her quilts are considered among the finest examples of nineteenth-century Southern quilting. 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 into slavery near Athens, Georgia. Historians say she spent her early life on a plantation owned by John and Nancy Lester in Madison County, Georgia, where it is believed she learned to sew from other slaves or from her mistress.
Though an 1895 Chicago Tribune article about the Cotton States and International Expo characterizes Powers as ignorant and illiterate, only learning Bible stories from "others more fortunate", quilt historian Kyra E. Hicks discovered during research for her book This I Accomplish: Harriet Powers' Bible Quilt and Other Pieces a letter written by Powers explaining how she came to be literate and that she learned bible stories, which served as the inspiration for her quilt work storytelling through her own study of the bible.
In 1855, at the age of eighteen, Powers married Armstead Powers. They had at least nine children. Harriet's husband, Armstead Powers identified himself as a 'farmhand' in the 1870 census; Harriet is listed as 'keeping house', and three children, Amanda, Leon Joe and Nancy lived at home. In the 1880s, after being freed at the end of the Civil War, they owned four acres of land and had a small farm. During the 1890s, due to financial difficulty, her husband slowly sold off parcels of their land, defaulted on taxes, and eventually left Harriet and their farm in 1895. Powers never remarried and probably supported herself as a seamstress. 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, known as the , was shown at the Athens cotton Fair in 1886; 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, which she found to be remarkable, 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 four years later, she agreed to sell the piece for five dollars, having asked for ten but talked down by Smith. At the same time Powers vividly explained the imagery on the quilt; Smith recorded these explanations, adding notes of her own in her personal diary. It may be that Smith elaborated on the Christian content in her account. Powers visually communicated with her narrative quilts in themes from her own experience and the techniques from the age-old crafts of African Americans.
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, when Powers and her husband had separated. 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 vice-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 of Fine Arts, Boston.
Records of other quilts exist but they have not survived.

Style of quilt work

Bible Quilt 1886 and Pictorial 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 for their bold use of these techniques in storytelling. For example, Powers did a panel called the 'night of the falling stars,' which reflected the three-day spectacular Leonid shower of meteors in 1833, four years before her birth. Jennie Smith recorded Harriet Powers's comments for each square of the Bible Quilt, and according to Smith's notes, in the falling stars square, "The people were frightened and thought that the end of time had come. God's hand staid the stars. The varmints rushed out of their beds." Another panel illustrates the 'dark day' May 19, 1780.
The author Floris Barnett Cash suggests that Powers' interest in celestial scenes, religious stories, and astronomical occurrences was due to the Black community where she lived. Community shared information like hearing sermons from preachers every Sunday or the news shared during quilting frolics influenced her quilts.
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. Although we now know that Powers was literate, she might have used her quilts as teaching tools.
In 2009, a copy of an 1896 letter from Harriet Powers to a prominent Keokuk, Iowa woman surfaced. In the letter Powers shares insights into her life as a slave, when she learned to read and write, and descriptions of at least four quilts she stitched.
In her letter, Harriet Powers also describes a quilt made about 1882 that she called the Lord's Supper quilt. It is unclear if the presumably appliquéd quilt still physically exists today. Given that two of Powers' appliquéd quilts have survived for over 100 years, it is possible the Lord's Supper quilt could be in a collection.

''Bible Quilt 1886''

The quilt had 299 separate pieces of fabric, made into 11 panels. Broken vertical strips separated each panel. In West African design, unbroken lines were meant to startle spirits and keep evil from "moving in straight lines." The panels themselves depicted Bible Stories, like the story of Jacob from the spiritual "We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder," which was a popular Bible story with slaves since they related with the hunted, homeless Jacob, the ladder representing escape from slavery. The other subjects are Adam and Eve, Eve and her son in a continuance of Paradise, Satan among the seven stars, Cain killing Abel, Cain going into the land Nod for a wife, Job, Jonah and the Whale, the baptism of Christ, the crucifixion, Judas Iscariot and the thirty pieces of silver, the Last Supper, and the Holy Family, Christ's ascension to Heaven. Jennie Smith said she was so taken with the quilt because, " style is bold and rather on the impressionist's order while there is a naivete of expression that is delicious." Another interpretation is that the stories illustrated were chosen by Powers, a second or third generation enslaved woman, as coded messages of loss and escape. Harriet visited the Quilt once in Smith's ownership on several occasions, showing it had special significance in her life.

''Pictorial Quilt 1898''

This quilt has 15 panels, and it combines Biblical scenes with both African and Christian symbols, along with stories of meteorological and astronomical events. Events like Black Friday, a series of forest fires, Georgia's cold front of February 10, 1895, the Leonid meteor shower, and several nights of falling stars during mid-August 1846 were all depicted in this work.

Bible Quilt Controversy

In 1992 The Smithsonian Institution hired a Chinese company to make reproductions of Bible Quilt along with several other famous 19th century quilts, including Susan Strong's 1830, Great Seal Quilt. When the first reproductions appeared in Spiegel catalogue for purchase, many Americans were shocked. The quilting and arts community, particularly The National Quilting Association and Maryland's Four County Quilt Guild, were extremely upset by these reproduction efforts. They felt it was disrespectful to try and make money off Bible Quilt and other works like it without exploring who might own the familial rights to the work and who could possibly receive some of the royalties from its reproduction. They were also concerned that the mass reproduction of these unique, timeless quilts would not only damper the significance of their authorship, but muddy the important origins of their place in American history. Additionally, they felt strongly that if reproductions were going to be made, they should be produced by American quilting companies to help continually support the craft in the US. Many felt so passionate about this cause that they canceled their Smithsonian memberships, contacted their congressman, signed petitions and protested outside the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian Institution made several changes to their reproduction efforts based on these responses, including having "Copyright 1992 Smithsonian Institution" printed on every quilt in hopes of avoiding confusion. They agreed to not sell quilt reproductions in museum gift shops or any type of catalogue, and changed their reproduction contract to two domestic companies, the Cabin Creek Quilters in Appalachia and the Missouri Breaks living on the Lakota Sioux reservation. To combat controversies like this in the future, the Smithsonian additionally began to hold public forums that fostered discussion and further research about ethical practices as it relates to artistic reproductions.

Death and posthumous honors

Powers died on January 1, 1910, and was buried in the Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery in Athens. Her grave was rediscovered in January 2005.
In 2009, Powers was inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement Hall of Fame.
In October 2010, there was a series of events in Athens, Georgia, around the theme "Hands That Can Do: A Centennial Celebration of Harriet Powers." The events included a quilt exhibit, storytelling, a gospel concert, a symposium, a commemorative church service, and visit to the Powers grave site.
Athens-Clarke County Mayor Heidi Davison issued a proclamation naming October 30, 2010, as Harriet Powers Day.

In popular culture

Children's literature