Shelburne Museum Visit

This week we drove up to the Burlington, NH area to visit relatives and to see the quilt exhibits at Shelburne Museum. The first one we visited was a large hall filled with quilts, textiles, and clothing related to the Civil War. I enjoyed seeing a havelock, in person, having read so much about them and how the soldiers hated wearing them. A havelock is a white headgear that was supposedly going to help northern soldiers in staving off the sun's beating heat of the south.

There were a lot of costumes and other things in the exhibit. I found the signage to be a bit too small to read even though my eyesight is 20/20 when wearing corrective lenses. The roping around the quilts, etc. also made it difficult to get close enough to actually read the signs. I recognized some of the quilts (like the James George quilt) donated to the U.S.S. Sanitary Commission; and one of the so-called "gunboat" quilts that served as a fundraiser in the south. It was a nice array of Civil War artifacts gathered from many lending institutions.

Pat Cummings at Shelburne Museum

In the same building, downstairs, is an exhibit of Amish star quilts. The Amish do not celebrate the individuality of people, probably the reason no signage was in place to reveal the makers of the quilts.

From there we walked over to the hat and fragrance shop. In front of the building, the herbs were smelling intensely-fragrant as it had just stopped raining. Inside we viewed quilts from the permanent collection, a guest exhibit of Nancy Crow, and some other really interesting textiles. No photos were allowed of any of the special exhibits.

It was a very fun visit. The October foliage is, of course, gorgeous...even in the rain! We found a great place to stay and also enjoyed our visit with family. Had intended to go to a quilt show the next day but were not able to do so due to a chronic health condition (arthritis in my feet). We came home as happy campers who actually spent some quality time away from home on our vacation.