Civil War quilts at Virginia Quilt Museum

Civil War re-enactors must be exhausted after commemorating Civil War battles and camps for the past four years but imagine what life was really like at the end of the Civil War. Special events coming up at the Virginia Quilt Museum – www.vaquiltmuseum.org – will reveal through Civil War period quilts what life was like at home and on the battlefield in the 1860s.

Opening July 14 and running through Oct 3, Civil War era quilts will be displayed throughout the museum’s antebellum house in historic downtown Harrisonburg. Exhibit quilts are from the Shenandoah Valley, some donated by local families along with family history from that period.

As a special feature, historic textile expert Lynne Z. Bassett of Massachusetts will speak on “Herstory in Civil War Quilts.” Bassett will speak on Sat. July 25 at St. Stephen’s United Church of Christ, 358 S.Main St., Harrisonburg. Tickets for the lecture program are $25 for museum members, $30 for non-members. The program will begin at 1:15 pm., followed by a reception and book signing at the museum.

Also the museum is sponsoring a two-day seminar “CIVIL WAR QUILTS: WHAT THE WOMEN LEFT BEHIND” to be held July 24-25. Attendees will study Shenandoah Valley textiles made before, during, and after the Civil War. The two-day event will be held in collaboration with the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society’s Heritage Museum in Dayton www.valleyheritagemuseum.org. Lectures, a quilt turning, museum tours and special exhibits will be featured. See www.vaquiltmuseum.org/special-events/quilt-study-seminar for agenda details and registration forms. Seminar fee is $75 for Quilt Museum members, and $85 for non-members. This fee includes the lecture by Ms. Bassett on July 25.

Tickets are available by calling the museum at 540-433-3818. Open Tues.-Sat., from 10 am to 4 pm the museum is located at 301 S. Main St., Harrisonburg, Va. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the museum exists to celebrate quilting in Virginia as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, funded solely through private donations, memberships, and revenue from admissions and museum shop sales. The Virginia Quilt Museum receives no federal or state funding.