“Whether in our collective romanticized memory, covering our bodies as we sleep, or handing on museum gallery walls, quilts are potent objects, and the US government harnessed that power to relieve the impact of the Great Depression.”
— Janneken Smucker
A New Deal for Quilts (University of Nebraska Press, 2023) explores the ways quilts became a powerful form of communication in government relief and public relations efforts and as expressions of quilt makers hopes for better times. Author Janneken Smucker, herself a 5th generation quilt maker, is professor of History at West Chester University in Philadelphia, specializing in digital and public history and material culture. FREE. REGISTER
The Living New Deal documents the vast legacy the New Deal (1933-1942) left to America
and the spirit of public service that inspired it.
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