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A view of exhibition ‘Amish Abstractions: Quilts from the Collection of Faith and Stephen Brown’ at San Francisco’s de Young Museum

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03 December 2009

At San Francisco’s de Young Museum from 14 November 2009 until 6 June 2010, ‘Amish Abstractions: Quilts from the Collection of Faith and Stephen Brown’ presents 48 full-size and crib quilts from the 1880s to the 1940s. The selection showcases the artistry and diversity of the Amish tradition, celebrating its significance in the story of American folk textiles.

Bay Area collectors Faith and Stephen Brown began collecting Amish quilts more than three decades ago. With dedication and great patience they have built one of the most important collections in private hands, with premier examples from communities in Pennsylvania and the Midwest.

Fleeing religious persecution in Switzerland, southern Germany, and the Alsace region of France, the first wave of Amish arrived in North America between 1737 and 1754, settling on farms in Pennsylvania and, later, the Midwest and Canada. Living apart from mainstream society, they sought a quiet, ordered, disciplined life that is re?ected in their buildings, furnishings, gardens, clothing and quilts.

The Amish initially learned quilt making from their ‘English’, or non-Amish, neighbours. However, they quickly developed a sensibility of their own, coupling distinctive quilt patterns and fabrics with unusual spatial arrangements. These were cherished heirlooms, passed from one generation to another and used sparingly.

The earliest known Amish quilt dates to 1831, but quilt-making did not become a pervasive activity among Amish women until the 1880s – decades after being established in the American mainstream, and well after the Amish migration to the farmlands of the Midwest. Consequently, divergent quilt-making traditions exist among Pennsylvanian and Midwestern Amish communities. It is the spare designs of quilts from Lancaster County in Pennsylvania, one of the oldest established Amish communities in America, that are most often associated in the public eye with Amish quilt-making.

The Browns, however, did not acquire a Lancaster County quilt until the early 1990s, fifteen years after they began collecting Midwestern Amish pieces. Their preference for Midwestern Amish quilts makes theirs unique among other such collections. In collecting, they sought dramatic works constructed with bold geometric patterning and vibrant hues – works that reminded them of modern ‘Hard-edge’ and ‘Colour Field’ painting. And although the Midwestern Amish share the same religious beliefs as the Pennsylvania Amish, their quilts are visually discrete. 

Unlike the Pennsylvania communities, which were surrounded by other German-speaking settlements, the Midwestern Amish established themselves among people of dissimilar backgrounds. Distanced from their mother communities, the new settlers had greater interaction with their non-Amish neighbours. Midwestern Amish women thus worked with a large repertoire of patterns appropriated from mainstream America

Faith and Stephen Brown have sought quilts everywhere they have travelled, at home and abroad, and after thirty years continue to discover new aspects of their collection. Recently, they expressed their surprise when a woman approached them at a quilt symposium and said, “Your collection has a sort of attitude. You have a special take on Amish quilts that is unusual, that other people just don’t have.”

Jill D’Alessandro