Administrative Information
Provenance
In 1992, 1994, and 1996, Coming Home (the Bed & Bath Division of Lands' End Inc.) co-sponsored a national quilting contest with Good Housekeeping magazine. Taking into account the dissemination of promotional material, the processing of entries, and the selection of winners, each contest took approximately two years to complete. Due to the nature and scope of the contest, in 1994, the Archive of the American Folklife Center expressed interest in co-sponsorship; however, after some deliberation, the Archive instead chose to recommend candidates for the 1996 judging panel. After Lands' End announced its decision to discontinue the contest, the Archive expressed interest in acquiring the winning contest materials for their collections.
In September 1996, the acquisition of the Lands' End gift was officially announced at the 20th anniversary celebration/board meeting of American Folklife Center when the 1996 first place national winner made by Candy Goff of Montana was displayed at the meeting reception. The Archive received collection materials between late fall of 1996 and early 1997. In the spring of 1997, the collection was chosen by Librarian of Congress Dr. James Billington for digitization for the American Memory online presentation on the Library of Congress website. The resulting web presentation “Quilts and Quiltmaking in America, 1978-1996” was released in the summer of 1999.
Processing History
The processing of this collection began in the summer of 1997 under the general supervision of Nora Yeh. In addition to arranging the acquisition of the collection, Theadocia Austen began the initial inventory and survey of the materials. Later that summer, volunteer Marie Walter and Junior Fellow Catherine Bowers organized the administrative files and grouped the contest entries by state. In the summer of 1998, Junior Fellows Clare Norcio, Steven Pape, and Rebecca Fan worked with team leader Carol Moran to complete the labeling, rehousing, and final count of collection materials. In the fall of 1998, Christa Maher processed all materials related to the contest winners, and from 1998-99 worked with Laurel Horton (consultant) and Thomas Bramel (digital coordinator) on the digitization of the on-line presentation for this collection. The collection guide was completed by Carol Moran in September 1998, updated by Judy Ng in April 2002, by Valda Morris-Slack in 2004, and by Nora Yeh in 2009.
Online Content
National and state winning entries from the three contests are available in the presentation “Quilts and Quiltmaking in America, 1978-1996.” See http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/collafc.af000010, an online resource compiled by the National Digital Library Program of the Library of Congress.
Preferred Citation
Lands' End All-American Quilt Collection (AFC 1997/011), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Related Materials
A Stitch in Time: African American Quilters of Oakland, AFC 1991/010
Alliance for American Quilts Interview Collection, AFC 2007/009
Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project Collection, AFC 1982/009
Lisa Oshins Quilt Survey Collection, AFC 1988/033
Quilts and Quiltmaking in America, 1978-1996 Online Presentation Collection, AFC 1999/024
The Quilters' Save Our Stories Project, Lecture by Bernard L. Herman, AFC 2007/034