Signature Quilt

Julianna Diehl Fenstermacher

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This quilt is made up of six blocks across and six blocks down, surrounded by a border and sashing of red printed pattern on white ground. Each block has a central square of white cotton fabric that is inscribed in black ink with a person’s name underlined with a flourish, all in the same hand. The quilt was likely made by or for Julianna Fenstermacher on the occasion of her marriage to Benneville Fenstermacher. The square that contains Julianna’s name reads in German: "Julianna. Fenstermacher/ her carpet/ 1855." Benneville’s name can be found in the square beside hers. The quilt also includes the names of Julianna’s parents, Hannah and Tobias Diehl, and her brothers and sisters, Dianna Heinrich, Jacob, and Emilie Diehl. This quilt demonstrates the bright colors and sentimental traditions popular with German-speaking immigrant communities in Pennsylvania.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art