Harriet Powers is considered one of the most accomplished quilters of the 19th century – though much of her private life remains undiscovered. Born into slavery and emancipated in the Civil War, Harriet Powers went on to become a landowner and quilter – gaining recognition at regional art fairs and receiving commissions for her narrative quilts in her early 50s.
Powers was born in the outskirts of Athens, Georgia on October 92, 1837. She married young and bore at least nine children, eventually owning a farm and working as a housekeeper. After her emancipation, she created quilts using machine-stitch and appliqué. Her quilts were unique – unusually rich in their narrative. The stories she told were steeped in her deep religious faith.
Many quilts at the time were primarily focused on patterns. Powers, on the contrary, made storytelling a central part of her quilts, using an unusually high number of figures and used appliqué techniques and storytelling often found in the textiles of Western Africa.
In 1886 at the age of 49, Powers exhibited a special quilt at the Athens Cotton Fair. It captured the imagination of Jennie Smith, a young internationally-trained local artist. Of her discovery, Jennie later wrote: “I have spent my whole life in the South, and am perfectly familiar with thirty patterns of quilts, but I had never seen an original design, and never a living creature portrayed in patchwork, until the year 1886, when there was held in Athens, Georgia, a ‘Cotton-Fair,’ which was on a much larger scale than an ordinary county fair, as there was a ‘Wild West’ show, and Cotton Weddings; and a circus, all at the same time. There was a large accumulation farm products–the largest potatoes, tallest cotton stalk, biggest water-melon! Best display of pickles and preserves made by exhibitor! Best display of seeds &c and all the attractions usual to such occasions, and in one corner there hung a quilt-which ‘captured my eye’ and after much difficulty I found the owner… who lives in the country on a little farm whereon she and husband make a respectable living…. The scenes on the quilt were biblical and I was fascinated. I offered to buy it, but it was not for sale at any price.”
Half a decade later, Powers sold the quilt to Smith during a period of economic hardship. Smith revealed why she was so taken with it:
“Her style is bold and rather on the impressionists order while there is a naievete of expression that is delicious.”
Powers’ strength as an artist lies in what she was able to transmit through the fabric: her religious faith. Powers weaved her spiritualism into her quilts which is easily perceived through the individual blocks depicting biblical stories, local events, and celestial occurrences.
The quilt sold to Smith still exists, and is known as the Bible Quilt – now in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian. It’s power and beauty spoke to many members of the community – after its display at the Cotton Fair in Athens, it was displayed at the Cotton Exposition in Atlanta and inspired a group of Georgia University women faculty members to commission a similar quilt, now housed in the Boston Museum of Fine Art and known as the Pictorial Quilt.
The Pictorial Quilt pulls from Bible stories, but adds celestial movements and local stories.
Here are some of the descriptions, as the artist described them:
First row, second block:
“The dark day of May 19, 1780. The seven stars were seen 12 N. in the day. The cattle wall went to bed, chickens to roost and the trumpet was blown. The sun went off to a small spot and then to darkness.”
Second row, first block:
“Jonah cast over board of the ship and swallowed by a whale. Turtles.”
Second row, third block:
“The falling of the stars on Nov. 13, 1833. The people were frightened and thought that the end had come. God’s hand staid the stars. The varmints rushed out of their beds.”
The last block:
“The crucifixion of Christ between the two thieves. The sun went into darkness. Mary and Martha weeping at his feet. The blood and water run from his right side.”
Harriet Powers died on January 1, 1910. She is buried in Athen’s Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery. Her quilts dropped into obscurity for six decades before being rediscovered in the 1970’s. Powers became significant in academic circles more than half a century after her death as an exemplar of the influence and power of women’s domestic art and art inspired by traditions outside the Western canon, showing not only this type of art’s historical purpose and importance but its aesthetic influence and significance.
Sources and Resources
Harriet Powers: A Black Female Folk Artist Who Regained Her Glory
https://www.artstor.org/2017/07/07/the-enduring-significance-of-harriet-powers-quilts/
