Connecting to Hoosier Ancestors through the Art and Stories in Quilt Indexes

June 23, 2025

Some of my earliest memories include watching my grandmother sew and sleeping with the quilts that she and my great-grandmother made for me. I thought of this while searching for an article topic for the Spring/Summer 2024 issue of Connections. I wanted to choose something that was not only personal to me but also to many others.

Sometimes, we are unable to find our ancestors through written records. But vital documents are not the only way to make connections with people from the past. Material culture, in the form of quilts and other family heirlooms, can provide a look into what our ancestors valued, how they spent their time, and what communities they were a part of.

Taking inspiration from my family’s heritage of quilting, I chose three quilts from the Vigo County Historical Center (VCHC) in Terre Haute, Indiana, to research for my article. I will discuss one of them below. From the museum, I learned about the Indiana Quilt Registry Project (IQRP) and the Quilt Index. In the 1980s and 1990s, many states created registries that cataloged quilts and quilters. The information gathered through the registries can be used for a variety of purposes, including genealogy, social history, and other research projects. Indiana has more than 6,400 quilts registered in the index, some of which were donated to the VCHC.

News article from the Vincennes Sun–Commercial of April 9, 1987, with some of the locations of quilt registration sites. Courtesy of Newspapers.com, Ancestry

The Quilt Index (https://quiltindex.org/) was created at Michigan State University in 2003. It brought together many of the state registry projects, as well as other private collections and research. One of the great features of the website is the search engine in the virtual gallery. Researchers can filter by pattern, quiltmaker, location, time period, color, fabric, and even religious or cultural affiliation. I used this tool to help find and analyze various quilts when writing my Connections article.

Unfortunately, not all family heirlooms get passed down with a lot of information. Using a resource such as the Quilt Index can help fill in some of the blanks. For example, I used the Quilt Index to more accurately date one particular quilt on display at the VCHC. Simply titled “Quilt 120,” the description of this blue and white quilt states that it was made in the 1830s by a girl named Letha who died at age seventeen.

The description also states that the quilt was hand-dyed with berries. However, this particular shade of blue cannot be achieved with berries; and the color is still extremely vibrant for the quilt’s supposed age. Berry dyes do not last long, unlike indigo, which was more commonly used in the nineteenth century for this same deep color.

“Quilt 120” was stated to be from 1830, but there are a few signs that point to it being more recently made. Courtesy of Vigo County History Center, Terre Haute, Indiana

I was also unable to find 1830s-era quilts with a similar print design in the index. The pattern of the quilt, identified as an “ocean wave variation,” does not show up in the index until the 1840s, with its popularity peaking between 1870 and 1890. Furthermore, the print itself looks to be machine-produced, not handmade. There is also some obvious machine stitching on the binding. Sewing machines were not commercially available until about 1846, which further indicates that the quilt was most likely made in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

With so little information in the registry, I was unable to find any genealogical information about the quilt’s creator, Letha. Knowing more about her life—when and where she lived—may have given me additional clues as to the quilt’s origins. But, with my research, I was able to give more accurate information about the quilt itself and the historical environment in which it was created.

I hope my article can help others make connections with their families and the heirlooms that have been passed down to them. For more information and analysis of quilts, look for “Your Grandmother’s Quilt: Connecting to Hoosier Ancestors through the Art and Stories in Quilt Indexes,” by Caroline G. Emenaker in the Spring/Summer 2024 issue of Connections, available in the Members’ Section of the IHS website.

Caroline Emenaker is currently an architectural reviewer for the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission. She earned her master’s degree in public history from Indiana University, Indianapolis in 2025. Previously she worked at the Indiana Historical Society as an intern in the Exhibits and Press departments. Caroline is also a living history interpreter at Conner Prairie

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