Fabric Art, Made From the Fighting

Building on last year’s touring exhibitions of Civil War art and photography, “Homefront & Battlefield: Quilts & Context in the Civil War” reminds us that textiles were also a big part of wartime culture (and, not incidentally, one in which women played a major role). Organized by the American Textile History Museum in Lowell, Mass., the show has just arrived at the New-York Historical Society. (It will travel to the Shelburne Museum in Vermont next fall and the Nebraska State Historical Society in the winter of 2015.)

Quilts, many incorporating fabrics worn on the battlefield, are the focus. One is made from the checkered red, white and blue outfits of Union Zouave militiamen; another, sewn by a woman with sons on both sides of the fight, combines the blue and gray of Union and Confederate uniforms. Also included in the exhibition are historic garments like the “free labor” dress, made by runaway slaves in the employ of the Vermont Quaker and abolitionist Rachel Robinson, as well as haunting artifacts like the hemp rope said to have been used to hang John Brown. (Through Aug. 24, 170 Central Park West, at 77th Street, 212-873-3400; nyhistory.org.)

A quilt put together from the cloth of Civil War uniforms, circa 1865.

By KAREN ROSENBERGAPRIL 4, 2014 in NY Times