Uncoverings 2012 Volume 33- Hortense Horton Beck Tells Her Story by Gloria Craft Comstock

Hortense Horton Beck Tells Her Story:

“I wanted to do something important”

 

Gloria Craft Comstock

 

The Hortense Horwn Beck Collection, presented in 2008 for the education collection of theInternational Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, is the only assemb”/a_ge of”late,twentieth,century reproduction American masterpiece quilts, according w the IQSC’s direcwr, Dr. Patricia Crews. The Hortense Horton Beck Collection is a showcase of complex andchallenging “museum ‘picture”‘ quilts (as the maker called such picwrial appuque quilts),revealing technical skills that rival those of the original quiltmakers. This generous gift allows these reproductions of si_gnificant American quilts tv be shared ‘With diverse audiences in a broadrange of exhibition spaces and conditions.

Using Hortense Beck’s auwbiography and notebooks, oral histvries, ephemera, newspaperarticles, and the quilts themselves, this paper explores the motivations and processes behindHortense’s mission w interpret and recreate some of America’s iconic applique quilts.

 

Finding “Something Important” To Do

In her retirement Hortense Horton Beck (1920-2009) educated herself I in American history and material culture. As the United States prepared to celebrate the Bicentennial, she focused her passion on historic quilts, determined to “do something important”-something that would promote the beauty and significance of these historic artifacts to a wide audience.

 

She learned to sew in her sixties in order to recreate certain masterpieces of American quilting, many of them in museum collections. In a 2001 interview, Hortense revealed the ease with which she acquired quilting skills, saying, “I just started to learn to use a thimble and to sew.”1

Applique quilts in the Baltimore album, patriotic, and African American styles particularly inspired Hortense; she also enjoyed designing her own quilts. For some time, quiltmakers had used published patterns for reproduction applique (including patterns by Elly Sienkiewicz, or from the Daughters of the American Revolution pattern collections).2 In addition to these commerciallyavailable patterns, Hortense and her husband, Dr.

Joseph Beck, created their own reproduction patterns. Hortense chose the fabrics carefully to closely emulate the original designs, though she acknowledged that a perfect match was generally impossible.

Her motivation in reproducing certain masterpiece quilts was to “own” and enjoy them herself, but also to allow them to be shared easily, because museums cannot exhibit their historic quilts as frequently as scholars and admirers such as herselflike to see them. With her reproductions, “It doesn’t matter if they get a little dusty or somebody wants to look at the back of it, and … [it’s not necessary] to put on a glove.”3

 

Biography of Hortense Hort<m Beck

 

On February 17, 1920, Margaret Hortense Horton was born in Atwood, a farming community inwestern Kansas. She was the third and last child of her parents, William Ryneck Horton andMargaret Ann Huston. William owned an Atwood bank and Margaret, a graduate of Kansas State University, was a home economics teacher. When Hortense was one year old, her mother died, leaving three children under four years of age in their father’s care. In her oral history, Hortense stated “Dad was considered an older man at that time. At forty six, he suddenly had a baby. And I know that’s why my Dad and I were so close, because he had to carry that baby around.”⁴ William Horton remarried five years later.

After graduating from Atwood High Schoo1in 192 7, Hortense attended

Kansas University in Lawrence. Two years later, she transferred to UCLA, and majored in political science. Alone, Hortense would drive back and forth between her home in Atwood and UCLA-a trip totaling about 1,200 miles. Her father expected her to stop for the night at Raton, New Mexico.

 

After calling him to indicate that she was staying the night, Hortense would return to her car and continue driving. Knowing his daughter’s determination, William Horton always made sure she had new tires and even gave her a hydraulic jack for her birthday. She recalled, “I was as compulsive aboutdriving as I was about quilting later.”⁵

While visiting a friend in Danbury, Kansas, Hortense met her future husband, Joseph Beck (1918 2008). After they completed college and Joe graduated from medical school, they married on Christmas Day, 1943.⁶ During World War II, Joe enlisted in the army and served in a hospital on Tinian Island, in the South Pacific.

Hortense worked as a saleswoman in a dress shop in Atwood until Joe was discharged from the military. Following a move in 1946 to Topeka, where Joe established a pediatric practice, a daughter,Sarah Beck Kirby, was born. Once Sarah became older, Hortense worked as her husband’s office

manager. After his retirement in 1981, Joe played golf every day, giving Hortense “all the time in theworld to sew.”⁷ Looking back on 64 years of marriage, Hortense commented, “We had lots offunwithdifferent things, …

[and] he was an easy man to live with. We had a good partnership. I don’t think we ever had adisagreeable moment.”8

 

Threads Leading Hortense to Quilts

 

Hortense wrote in her autobiography, “My introduction to the quiltmaker’s art occurred in the 1920s at Grandmother Huston’s home in Manhattan, Kansas. My sister, brother and I spent summers with her after our mother died, and Grandmother always had a quilt on her knee.”9 She added, “My exposure to antique furniture, dishes and other items began at home in Atwood, Kansas. Father’s antiques descended through the Horton family from a farm settled in Orange County, New York,during the early l 700s.”10 This exposure to antiques led to Hortense’s interest in quilts: “Quilts were decorative and would accent my antique furniture. I collected perhaps 20 to 30 nice old quilts before the ‘collectors’ craze’ sent prices skyrocketing. I liked the old primitive patterns, but unfortunately, theywere either in museums or too expensive to buy.”¹¹

Hortense had a keen collector’s eye. Two of her early quilt purchases reveal her design preferences.One was an AfricanAmerican quilt that was acquired from a quiltmaker in the community of Nicodemus, Kansas, an

 

 

historic town that was settled by African Americans in 1877.12 Another is the Hannah Haynes Headlee quilt, called The Peacock. [Figure 1] Jan Masenthin, a fellow Topeka quilter, to1d the story ofhow a friend telephoned to tell Hortense that shesaw the Headlee quilt for sale in an antiques shop in Lawrence, Kansas. Adding special interest to the quilt was the opportunity to buy the quiltmaker’s original drawings, which were being sold with it. Immediately, Hortense drove the 28 miles from Topeka to Lawrence and made the purchase. The original quilt owner had seller’s remorse and asked Hortense if they could buy it back, but Hortense admired the quilt too much to give it up and said,”No.”13 In 2005, the Becks donated The Peacock to the IQSC.14

In her 2009 interview with Dr. Carolyn Ducey of the IQSC, Hortense

related that her decision to reproduce quilts that she could not afford to buy or quilts that were notalways accessible because they were in museum collections came when she was disappointed not tofind quilts on display (as had been promised) at the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan. “That’s when I really got turned on to wanting people to see … these museum quilts that I have here … They’re notgoing to do anybody good if they’re hidden away all the time.”15 Hortense determined that she couldrecreate these masterpiece quilts and be able to share them with enthusiasts who did not have easy accessto the originals in museum collections. At the same time she also would have them for her ownenjoyment.

Sources influencing Beck’s research and selection of quilts to reproduce included the monthly antiques newspaper, Maine Antique Digest, and catalogs from auction houses such as Christie’s, in addition to books published on the subject. During the 1970s and 1980s, many quilt books included enlarged images, which Hortense valued as guides in developing her patterns. She laughed, ‘Well, halfof the fun I’ve had in making them is, I get a good book. I love reading about these things.”16 During museum visits, Hortense collected pamphlets, exhibit catalogs, and posters. Quilt calendars were another source of inspiration.

Learning the Craft 

Uncertain about her skills at first, Hortense made only small quilts. She realized quickly thatpiecing quilts was “not [her] cup of tea.”17 On a clipping dated April 4, 1976, Hortense wrote, “One of my 1st quilts-don’t

like piecingt”18 She was not discouraged, though, and enrolled in several quilting classes, including a class taught by Chris Wolf Edmonds, an art quilt designer and quiltmaker known for her use of applique.¹⁹ Hortense wrote in her autobiography, “Then, I discovered applique-and entered a newworld.”²⁰ She explained, “As soon as I got finished with one, I’d have my heart on another. I just love[d] it.”²¹ She enjoyed the freedom of choosing materials, techniques, and shapes, as well as the color palette that traditional applique offers.

Early in her quilting career, Hortense selected difficult patterns, including reverse applique andpieced mosaic patterns-if she was going to do something, it needed to be complicated. “I don’t like mediocre.”22 On selecting quilting projects, Hortense studied the books in her personal library thatillustrated and described historic quilts in museum collections. She found herself attracted to what she called “picture quilts”-complex applique quilts with scenes of people, animals, buildings, and floral arrangements that told a story. She also designed family picture quilts that hadpersonal significance.

Life in America [Figure 2] was made by Hortense about 1992. It was inspired by the summer spread, Trade & Commerce, made by Hannah Stockton, ca. 1830, and now in the collection of the New York State Historical Association in Cooperstown, New York.²³ Using the illustrations and description provided by Sandi Fox in Wrapped in Glory, Hortense recreated its imagery: around the edges are vignettes portraying wharf life, including a man drinking in a tavern, men and women strolling, and a man in work clothes driving a wagon and team of horses.²⁴ In order to reproduce the original toile used by Hannah Stockton, Hortense inked by hand the image of a man carrying tobacco leaves and appliqued him in the border. Hortense also appliqued the inner border of the spread with ships andboats on green waves, and the center medallion with chintz birds perching in a tree of life, following the design of Hannah Stockton. While Hortense had the patience to carefully replicate the applique of this quilt, shedid not care to quilt it herself; that was accomplished by Jo Clark.

Another picture quilt reproduced by Hortense is the  Bird of Paradise.

[Figure 3] The original ca. 1863 quilt top, which belongs to the American Folk Art Museum in New York City, was published in the 1975 Quilt Calendar, Treasury of American Quilts, and AmericanQuilts.25 When it went on exhibition in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Joe took Hortense to see it.

 

Hortense recalled that “I had my own patterns by then, so I could compare and correct them.”26

The original Bird of Paradise quilt top was discovered near Albany, New York. It is dated by a group of original applique patterns that survived with the quilt top; the patterns are cut from a newspaper and other paper documents dating1858 to 1863. In the upper right corner appear two blocks, one illustrating a young girl holding fruiting branches, the other a bird and grapevine motif. The other blocks illustrate events around New York State and Saratoga Springs Raceway, including famous racehorses of the period. Pairs of birds, animals, and other symbols of union and fertility suggest that the quilt was intended for a newly married couple. Among the original patterns is a male figure that does not appear on the quilt, suggesting the possibility of a marriage that never took place. Theanonymous quiltmaker designed a very personal quilt on which she could display her exquisite needlework skills, but she did not finish it-was it a Civil War casualty? Hortense’s reproduction allows a broad audience to ponder the possible reasons for its incomplete state.

Hortense made another Civil War era quilt, Civil War Veterans [Figure 4], about 1990, using as her guides The Poster Book of Quilts and All Flags Flying: American Patriotic Quilts as Expressions of Liberty.21 The original quilt, which is believed to have been pieced and appliqued in New Jersey, is nowowned by the Shelburne Museum in Vermont. Oral tradition asserts that a wounded and discharged veteran made the quilt, suggesting it was intended for mental and physical therapy. Military motifs appear throughout, including an infantry marching around the border. The ladies bearing trays resemble the Baker’s Chocolate trademark logo of “La Belle Chocolatiere,” based on the painting by JeanEtienne Liotard from the 1740s. However, this design was not adopted by Baker’s Chocolate until1883, so it may have been a familiar image prior to that time.²⁸

Hortense replicated ten quilts attributed to African American quiltmakers. She admired their improvisational, but simple and straightforward aesthetic enhanced by the use of solid color fabric. Several quilts made through a connection to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) intrigued Hortense not only with their designs, but with their history. In 1934, Ruth Bond, the wife of a TVA administrator,found the TVA workers’ wives to be expert quilters and began designing pictorial quilts celebrating black Americans’ expanded opportunities under the New Deal.29 Ruth designed the tops and the women did the quilting. It is believed that Hortense got her inspiration from Merikay Waldvogel’s discussion of these quilts in her 1990 book, Soft Covers for Hard Times.30

 

In addition to the reproductions inspired by book illustrations, Hortense designed quilts of personal significance, depicting interesting places and family events. Lady Liberty [Figure 5] is a patriotic quilt that celebrates the immigration of Joe Beck’s family to America and the restoration of the Statue of Liberty, which was completed on July 4th, 1986.³¹ Hortense started Lady Liberty on that date, and finished one year later in 1987. Her original design portrays Joe’s grandmother, Anna Beck, and Anna’s three children arriving at Ellis Island from Austria. An advertisement from the TopekaCapiwl]ournal featuring a drawing of the Statue of Liberty provided the inspiration for the center, while the New York skyline surrounding the oval center medallion was derived from the top of a tiny HalcyonDays oval enamel box sold by Tiffany & Co. [Figure 6] Hortense remembers the story of trying to locate one of the boxes, after having seen it somewhere:

 

I called around and finally I called Tiffany’s in New York. ‘Yes,’ the woman said, ‘the reason you can’tfind it is because we’re the only ones that have it.’ So I said, ‘How do I get it?’ ‘Well,’ she said, ‘I’ll just send you one.’ I said, ‘How do I pay for it?’ She said, ‘I’ll bill you.’ I thought, well, boy, that’s pretty friendly of Tiffany’s. They don’t care whether they get their money or not. But, she sent me the box and I made the quilt.32

 

Hortense wrote in her notebook:

 

I started this quilt on July 4, 1986, the day President Reagan celebrated the restoration of theStatue of Liberty in New York I dedicated this quilt to my husband and family, who came to America by way of Ellis Island in the 1890s. Mrs. Anna Beck, three small children-the youngest was my husband’s father-and two trunks. They went to Oklahoma but left eventually because the land they had settledon was so ‘oily.’They moved towestemKansa&-Atwood, Kansas. That is where I met myhusband over 50 years ago.33

 

Todesign this picture quilt, Hortense Beck artfully combined her own vision with external inspirations. Pat Burgess expertly quilted it with sky and water motifs. Other quilts that Hortense designed depicting aspects of her family’s history remain with the Beck family.

 

Making the Patterns

 

When Hortense started to create her applique quilts in the 1980s, there were few commercialpatterns for museum reproductions. While several of the Baltimore album quilts that she ma.de were from purchased patterns, she generally made her own.34 She used books, posters, and-in thecase of a Baltimore album quilt in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center of Colonial Williamsburg-anotecard, to assist in creating her templates. She also contacted museums directly for help. Ironically,Hortense emphasized

in her interview with Dr. Ducey that (although she copied museum quilts

pictured in books, on posters, and even from slides acquired directly from museums)”… we never copiedanything from a museum.”³⁵ This defensive comment makes it apparent that she knew her work mightraise issues of copyright infringement. However, in her mind, her quilts were not exact reproductions, but interpretations, as the availability of fabrics necessitated that she alter somewhat the patterns and colors of the original. She also occasionally altered the designs. She reasoned, “You just know they’re not the early 1800 quilts.”36 But she was right not to be too concerned, as most museums do not mind ifsomeone makes a reproduction of a quilt in their collection, so long as it is for personal use and not forsale.³⁷

Joe and Hortense worked as partners to make the patterns. Because Joe’s math skills were stronger than Hortense’s, she left any calculations to him: “The reason my quilts are all square is because Joehelped me do all kinds of things, technical things, that I just couldn’t do. My political science career didn’t teach me how to add.’138

Joe was very resourceful in “rigging up” equipment for Hortense to use in making her patterns. Hortense described one project:

 

Well, I wanted a light table one day, so my husband got on a chair and he took out one of the storm windows up there. So, I propped that up on my tile counter with a brick and the window, [and] that’s been my light table for forty years. Anything I wanted, he would just look around the house and seewhat he could use … I always had a helper that could figure out what I needed.³⁹

 

Hortense had a favorite saying about Joe’s role in helping her: “A good quilter somewhere in thebackground has a good husband.”40

 

 

Working in a basement room, the couple selected an image from their reference sources andphotographed it as a slide.41 With a Kodak carousel projector,]oe would then project the slide ontotwodoors placeds ide-by-side to create a large screen. Over the doors was draped a bed sheet. A type of tracing paper used by architects was then pinned onto the sheet. Hortense would stand by the screen andtrace the designs onto the paper. Depending

on the quilt size, the projected image would either be sections, blocks, or the whole quilt. If the traceddesigns were not the correct size, Hortense would take them to the copy store to be enlarged.

 

That made it very easy, I could put up a whole quilt … I could get the whole border and then enlarge it after I got it drawn out … he’d help me get the projector just right I’d have to stand down here, and

… make sure we were getting a sixteen-inch block while he moved it enough to get the right size.⁴²

 

Other methods contributed to Hortense’s store of patterns. For example, in making the border for Lady Liberty, she used a magnifying glass to copy the skyline of New York from the Halcyon Days enamel Tiffany box. “When you open the quilt up and then compare it with the [Tiffany] box, you’ll see why I sat here for days with a magnifying glass trying to get that pattern out.”⁴³

When Hortense found a goal difficult to achieve, Joe made sure it was accomplished. He created the photography studio in the basement and frequently helped with the drawings. Their daughter, Sarah Kirby, stated that “Dad really helped Mom with the patterns. Not only in projecting the images, but hedrew some of the patterns.”44

 

Making the Quilt Top

 

Hortense Beck’s vision was to create a quilt that had the appearance and integrity of theinspiration quilt, but she did not expect (or sometimes want) it to be an exact reproduction. The process,as we11as the end product, was for her own enjoyment. She commented: “I’ve just done things the way I want … like the quilt where I did the reverse applique… I would figure out how todo it, and if itlooked alright, I’d go ahead … I just had fun doing things my own way.”⁴⁵

 

 

After tracing the pattern onto the architect’s paper, she made a black and white master copy of thepattern. It was her practice to fill the motifs with the correct colors using colored pencils, creating aguide that was easier for her to see. After the pattern was colored, referring to posters sometimes helped with the details of the motif patterns and fabrics.⁴⁶ To satisfy her desire for the right effect, Hortense often cut a specific element from a textile that she had in her stash. “I’ve got a cupboard full oflittle tinypieces. All my materials have holes in them … where I’ve cut out something.”47 The magnifying glass was a favorite tool when she selected materials.

Hortense used a light box to transfer her pattern, placing the ground fabric over the master pattern.In that way, she “knew exactly” where to pin the design elements. She avoided using a pencil to trace the pattern elements onto the ground fabric, believing the pencil marks could be seen. “I didn’t like that. I basted everything and then I could pin it on almost where I wanted it … I didn’t have any pencil marksor anything.”⁴⁸ From her patterned and colored fabrics, she then cut around each element of theapplique design, making a seam allowance of one-quarter inch, which she turned under and basted.Hortense also used the applique needle-tum method when it was difficult to baste a particularly small element. Hortense felt that her method of applique was efficient, accurate and easy: “I don’t applique like everybody [else] does it . . . Doing all those things they’re doing now, while they’re ironingsomething, I can make a whole block.”49

Hortense took great pride in her applique skills. She spent four to five hours a day in her family room, stitching by hand to meet her personal standard of 12 to 13 stitches per inch.⁵⁰ Hortense felt that “to be an appliquer, you need to have several hours in one stretch. You can’t just do fifteen minutes here and [there].” She considered herself fortunate that she had “the time to do these things.”51

The concentration required for intricate applique designs was intense. One particularly challengingBaltimore albumquilt that Hortense undertook was the one inspired by the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum note card.⁵² Hortense created her version of this quilt, which was formerly called theMary Simon Baltimore .Album Quilt, [Color Plate 4] around 1995; the original quilt was made by anunknown quiltmaker around 1850. As in other archetypal Baltimore album quilts, the maker used layers of cloth to form windows and doors for the four central architecture-themed blocks, as well as thepetals and wings for the twelve surrounding floral and bird

 

 

blocks. A complicated, undulating floral vine forms the border. Hortense documented the quilt in her notebook: “Recreated by Hortense Beck. Quilted by Pat Burgess, 1996. Quilt top was completed in June, 1995- took one year-minus one month when husband had open heart surgery.”53 Hortense felt this albumquiltwas her best effort. She had studied the designs “for years” before she and Joe drew thedifficult patterns.

Circus [Figure 7], also from about 1995, is an example of Hortense’s talent for selecting fabric to achieve an extraordinary effect. The inspiration was a Maxfield Parrish artwork commissioned for theMarch 1905 edition of the Ladies’ Home]oumal.54 The artist’s design of acrobats and clowns withzebras in a kaleidoscopic arrangement was deemed too complex for its readers, and so the Ladies’ HomeJournal never produced the expected pattern.⁵⁵ Coming upon the Journal, Hortense desired to make the quilt, but found there were only the artist’s intricate and difficult-to-follow instructions. She made her own pattern from the black and white illustration and chose a variety of fabrics, including synthetic and silk fibers, to give the quilt’s surface the vibrancy and energy of a circus. Hortense was not daunted by a lack of commercially available zebra-striped fabric; she inked the stripes on the eight zebras herself.

As is the tradition of quiltmakers, Hortense traveled to find appropriate fabrics. Her skill in selecting fabrics represents many hours of study and research. She knew the fabrics that she hadcollected and why she had chosen them-she claimed a “personal relationship” with her collection. Revealing the pride she took in her stash, she made Fabric Bouquet [Figure 8], which features aflowerpot with blossoms in each block. Each motif is made from fabric used in her reproductionquilts, without repetition.56

 

Into a Quilt

 

Hortense Beck loved researching, designing and making the top of a quilt. However, most of the quilts she reproduced were quilted by a professional quilter or a group, such as the Maple HillQuilters of Maple Hill, Kansas. Hortense did occasionally quilt, as with the Sunf]owerquilt from the Shelburne Museum collection: “Now, that’s kindof unique because Iquilted that myself, in my lap. I thought I’d never get through with it, and I don’t know what made me decide to quilt it. I do takepretty good little stitches. I can do it, but I can’t do it on a frame. That’s just out for me. I do it in my

 

 

lap.”57 She had great respect for the women who quilted for her: “I want it understood that a quilt is nothing without a wonderful quilter. I feel that quilting is a work of art, too. I do my little ones myself, but I cannot do a big one.”58 Hortense was frequently asked how long it took her to complete aquilt: “I figured that one of these Baltimore quilts that are so intricate that I can count on a year. Andthat’s sewing three or four hours a day   For

Mary Brown I (Glory, Glory Hallelujah), my quilter, Pat Burgess, spent four hundred and fifty hours.”59

 

Documentation

 

Two boxes of ephemera and two notebooks document Hortense’s quilts and related activities. The boxes, which contain patterns that the Becks made, ribbons from quilt shows, labels from exhibitions, a brief autobiography, and so on, are archived at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. The notebooks document Hortense’s personal quilt journey with comments and pictures, and were loaned to the IQSC when the gift of the quilt collection was made, but were returned eventually to Sarah Kirby, Hortense’s daughter.

Hortense placed documentation on the quilts themselves after hearing a presentation by a guestlecturer at one of her guild meetings. “The chief program that night was to date everything, put yourname on it, and maybe a little something on the back of the quilt  I knew I hadn’t done that, so I

went back through everything I’d already made at that point and got caught up. Since then, I think all myquilts have something on the back of them.⁶⁰

 

Exhibitions and Recognition

 

Hortense Beck’s goal was to recreate these museum quilts for her own enjoyment: “Never sold anything and don’t plan to.”61 However, she was gratified that as her collection grew and evolved, others enjoyed her quilts and recognized her skill, awarding her many ribbons. In 2007 at the Kansas Capital Quilters Guild 17th annual show, Stitched from the Heart, Quilted with Love, Hortense was honored to be the featuredquiltmaker. Particularly meaningful for the Becks was an exhibition at the Masonic Temple in Atwood, Kansas: Airing and Sharing was hung May 27-29, 2000 for the weekend celebration of Hortense’s high school reunion.

 

 

In the summer of 1990 Hortense exhibited at the Mulvane Art Museum of Washburn University inTopeka, Stars and Stripes Forever, made in 1986. [Figure 9] That September, the quilt wasfeatured on the cover of the Washburn Alumni Magazine. The four eagles in Stars and StripesForever are similar to the Baltimore albumquilt motifs of the 1850period now attributed to Mary Simon.Two of the flags contain 29 stars indicating a date of 1847, and the other two flags have 32 starsindicating 1852.⁶² Hortense declared, “I loved this quilt the moment I first saw it.”63 In the shield,Hortense inscribed, “1847-HB-1986.”

In 2007, Hortense’s African-American-inspired quilts were shown together at the Metropolitan Arts Council Gallery in Greenville, South Carolina. The Topeka Capital-Journal published a review of this exhibition of quilts by a noted “Topekan,” stating that the display was developed in conjunction with a play by Grace Cavaliere, called Quilting in the Sun.⁶⁴ When the theater company’s marketing director contacted Hortense, after learning on the internet of her reproduction of Harriet Powers’ famedquilt, Creation of the Animals, she was surprised when Hortense told her “not only did she have the replica, she had ten others.”65 Of course, the gallery took advantage of the opportunity to display all of the quilts together.

But exhibitions had become difficult for the Becks. The Topeka Capital­ Journal quotedHortense four years earlier: “‘I’m tired,’ the 83 year old said, adding that transporting and displaying the quilts was getting to be too much for her and her husband, Joseph Beck.”⁶⁶ It was hard work for the Becks to pack up the quilts, deliver them, oversee their mounting and then return to the exhibitionplace, repack the quilts and bring them home.

A  year  after  the  display  of  Hortense’s  African-American  quilt

reproductions, her collection was donated to the IQSC. Two rotations of the Hortense Horton BeckEducation Collection were mounted in the Education Center in the summer and autumn of 2009. Theaudience response was very positive, fulfilling the desire of both Hortense and the IQSC that visitors see the quilts’ aesthetic and technical value, and the stories they tell. Quilters have also communicateda sense of empowerment, a feeling that “if Hortense can do this, I can too.”

Achieving Hortense’s goal that a gift of her reproductions to the IQSC would make significant American quilts available for viewing by a wider audience, her version of the ReconciliationQuilt [Figure 10] was hung at the Nebraska State Capitol in the fall of 2009, along with an exhibition telling

 

 

the story of Lincoln’s presidency. In 1991, the original Reconciliation Quilt caused excitement in the quilt and folk art communities, when America Hurrah Antiques purchased it for $264,000 at Sotheby’s. The “picture blocks” illustrate daily life and social issues of Reconstruction after the Civil War. In 2001, the Robert and Ardis James Foundation donated the original quilt to the IQSC. Hortense’s version of theReconciliation Quilt was displayed in conditions that would not have been acceptable for such a valuable original textile.

Hortense discovered English Medallion, made by Sarah Thomas ca. 18211822, [Figure 11) in anArchitectural Digest advertisement for Christie’s Auction House.⁶⁷ As much as Sarah Thomas’s design appealed to Hortense, the poignant request inscribed on the quilt,”WhenThis You See, Remember Me,” spoke across the generations. Hortense inscribed her reproduction English Medallion similarly, signing her own name, “Hortense Horton Beck, 1822-1988,” connecting the twoquilts and their makers. As remembered by friend Frankie Best (who was present for Hortense’s interview with Carolyn Ducey), “She frequently included inscriptions that related herself to the original quiltmaker. Hortense tells me that when she’s doing these quilts she

…  feels like she knows the person who made the quilt originally.”68

In the same manner, Hortense made a connection to Mary Brown of the East Nottingham area of Cecil County, Maryland, whose quilt [Color Plate 5) is profiled in A Maryland Album, QuiltmakingTraditions,l 6341934. Hortense first saw Mary Brown’s quilt in a 1994 Christie’s auction catalog. In her notebook, she wrote on the auction picture, “I used this picture to make mine, 2004.” The owner at that time placed the quilt for auction as “she hoped it would find its way to a safe environment where it would be professionally cared for yet made available for others to enjoy and study.”69 Hortense certainly understood such a motivation. Mary Brown signed her quilt [Color Plate 6),

Mary Brown

Made in the 75th year of her age 1851.

 

In    kinship    with    Mary    Brown,    Hortense    signed    her     reproduction [Color Plate 5),

Hortense Beck

Made in the 85th year of her age 2005.

 

Hortense Horton Beck   tit

 

 

A Generational Kinship

 

Hortense Beck received and passed along the knowledge and experience of previous generations of quiltrnakers, creating a linkage for audiences now and in the future to also learn from quiltrnakers in the past. She was a member of “The Greatest Generation,” raised during the Great Depression and comingof age while experiencing the challenges and traumas of World War 11.⁷⁰ Her home state of Kansas is known for quilters with excellent skills during that difficult period, including Rose Kresinger and Charlotte Jane Whitehill, both from Emporia. Hortense admired these quiltrnakers, as well as hergrandmother, who “always had a quilt on her lap.” Americans preparing for the 1976 Bicentennialgave rise to the quilting renaissance of the 1970s, offering an opportunity for Hortense to deepen andmake more personal her exploration of history through her carefully reproduced quilts. Hortense’s generation became a bridge between Depression era and Bicentennial quiltrnakers. The cycle continues: Bicentennial quiltrnakers now mentor the current quilting generation.

Quiltmakers and quilt historians have been learning by studying and

making reproductions since the Colonial Revival of the early 20th century. Creating reproductionsprovides a feeling of continuity of time and artistry, and a spiritual connection between generations. Interest in creating reproductions occurs especially during periods marking an historical anniversary and in times of social and economic upheaval: the 1876 Centennial, Colonial Revival, the GreatDepression, the Bicentennial and, most recently, the Civil War Sesquicentennial.

Hortense Beck used her museum replicas to help today’s audience value and remember the work of earlier quiltmakers, to illustrate history, and to demonstrate excellent technical standards. Personally, she felt a spiritual kinship between the original quiltrnaker and herself. As she was inspired by thesequiltrnakers before her, so her work offers the opportunity for others to experience a spiritual kinship to previous generations.

As she so deeply desired, Hortense Horton Beck did something important.

 

Making the Patterns

 

When Hortense started to create her applique quilts in the 1980s, there were few commercialpatterns for museum reproductions. While several of the Baltimore album quilts that she ma.de were from purchased patterns, she generally made her own.34 She used books, posters, and-in thecase of a Baltimore album quilt in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center of Colonial Williamsburg-anotecard, to assist in creating her templates. She also contacted museums directly for help. Ironically,Hortense emphasized

in her interview with Dr. Ducey that (although she copied museum quilts

pictured in books, on posters, and even from slides acquired directly from museums)”… we never copiedanything from a museum.”³⁵ This defensive comment makes it apparent that she knew her work mightraise issues of copyright infringement. However, in her mind, her quilts were not exact reproductions, but interpretations, as the availability of fabrics necessitated that she alter somewhat the patterns and colors of the original. She also occasionally altered the designs. She reasoned, “You just know they’re not the early 1800 quilts.”36 But she was right not to be too concerned, as most museums do not mind ifsomeone makes a reproduction of a quilt in their collection, so long as it is for personal use and not forsale.³⁷

Joe and Hortense worked as partners to make the patterns. Because Joe’s math skills were stronger than Hortense’s, she left any calculations to him: “The reason my quilts are all square is because Joehelped me do all kinds of things, technical things, that I just couldn’t do. My political science career didn’t teach me how to add.’138

Joe was very resourceful in “rigging up” equipment for Hortense to use in making her patterns. Hortense described one project:

 

Well, I wanted a light table one day, so my husband got on a chair and he took out one of the storm windows up there. So, I propped that up on my tile counter with a brick and the window, [and] that’s been my light table for forty years. Anything I wanted, he would just look around the house and seewhat he could use … I always had a helper that could figure out what I needed.³⁹

 

Hortense had a favorite saying about Joe’s role in helping her: “A good quilter somewhere in thebackground has a good husband.”40

 

 

Working in a basement room, the couple selected an image from their reference sources andphotographed it as a slide.41 With a Kodak carousel projector,]oe would then project the slide ontotwodoors placeds ide-by-side to create a large screen. Over the doors was draped a bed sheet. A type of tracing paper used by architects was then pinned onto the sheet. Hortense would stand by the screen andtrace the designs onto the paper. Depending

on the quilt size, the projected image would either be sections, blocks, or the whole quilt. If the traceddesigns were not the correct size, Hortense would take them to the copy store to be enlarged.

 

That made it very easy, I could put up a whole quilt … I could get the whole border and then enlarge it after I got it drawn out … he’d help me get the projector just right I’d have to stand down here, and

… make sure we were getting a sixteen-inch block while he moved it enough to get the right size.⁴²

 

Other methods contributed to Hortense’s store of patterns. For example, in making the border for Lady Liberty, she used a magnifying glass to copy the skyline of New York from the Halcyon Days enamel Tiffany box. “When you open the quilt up and then compare it with the [Tiffany] box, you’ll see why I sat here for days with a magnifying glass trying to get that pattern out.”⁴³

When Hortense found a goal difficult to achieve, Joe made sure it was accomplished. He created the photography studio in the basement and frequently helped with the drawings. Their daughter, Sarah Kirby, stated that “Dad really helped Mom with the patterns. Not only in projecting the images, but hedrew some of the patterns.”44

 

Making the Quilt Top

 

Hortense Beck’s vision was to create a quilt that had the appearance and integrity of theinspiration quilt, but she did not expect (or sometimes want) it to be an exact reproduction. The process,as we11as the end product, was for her own enjoyment. She commented: “I’ve just done things the way I want … like the quilt where I did the reverse applique… I would figure out how todo it, and if itlooked alright, I’d go ahead … I just had fun doing things my own way.”⁴⁵

 

 

After tracing the pattern onto the architect’s paper, she made a black and white master copy of thepattern. It was her practice to fill the motifs with the correct colors using colored pencils, creating aguide that was easier for her to see. After the pattern was colored, referring to posters sometimes helped with the details of the motif patterns and fabrics.⁴⁶ To satisfy her desire for the right effect, Hortense often cut a specific element from a textile that she had in her stash. “I’ve got a cupboard full oflittle tinypieces. All my materials have holes in them … where I’ve cut out something.”47 The magnifying glass was a favorite tool when she selected materials.

Hortense used a light box to transfer her pattern, placing the ground fabric over the master pattern.In that way, she “knew exactly” where to pin the design elements. She avoided using a pencil to trace the pattern elements onto the ground fabric, believing the pencil marks could be seen. “I didn’t like that. I basted everything and then I could pin it on almost where I wanted it … I didn’t have any pencil marksor anything.”⁴⁸ From her patterned and colored fabrics, she then cut around each element of theapplique design, making a seam allowance of one-quarter inch, which she turned under and basted.Hortense also used the applique needle-tum method when it was difficult to baste a particularly small element. Hortense felt that her method of applique was efficient, accurate and easy: “I don’t applique like everybody [else] does it . . . Doing all those things they’re doing now, while they’re ironingsomething, I can make a whole block.”49

Hortense took great pride in her applique skills. She spent four to five hours a day in her family room, stitching by hand to meet her personal standard of 12 to 13 stitches per inch.⁵⁰ Hortense felt that “to be an appliquer, you need to have several hours in one stretch. You can’t just do fifteen minutes here and [there].” She considered herself fortunate that she had “the time to do these things.”51

The concentration required for intricate applique designs was intense. One particularly challengingBaltimore albumquilt that Hortense undertook was the one inspired by the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum note card.⁵² Hortense created her version of this quilt, which was formerly called theMary Simon Baltimore .Album Quilt, [Color Plate 4] around 1995; the original quilt was made by anunknown quiltmaker around 1850. As in other archetypal Baltimore album quilts, the maker used layers of cloth to form windows and doors for the four central architecture-themed blocks, as well as thepetals and wings for the twelve surrounding floral and bird

 

 

blocks. A complicated, undulating floral vine forms the border. Hortense documented the quilt in her notebook: “Recreated by Hortense Beck. Quilted by Pat Burgess, 1996. Quilt top was completed in June, 1995- took one year-minus one month when husband had open heart surgery.”53 Hortense felt this albumquiltwas her best effort. She had studied the designs “for years” before she and Joe drew thedifficult patterns.

Circus [Figure 7], also from about 1995, is an example of Hortense’s talent for selecting fabric to achieve an extraordinary effect. The inspiration was a Maxfield Parrish artwork commissioned for theMarch 1905 edition of the Ladies’ Home]oumal.54 The artist’s design of acrobats and clowns withzebras in a kaleidoscopic arrangement was deemed too complex for its readers, and so the Ladies’ HomeJournal never produced the expected pattern.⁵⁵ Coming upon the Journal, Hortense desired to make the quilt, but found there were only the artist’s intricate and difficult-to-follow instructions. She made her own pattern from the black and white illustration and chose a variety of fabrics, including synthetic and silk fibers, to give the quilt’s surface the vibrancy and energy of a circus. Hortense was not daunted by a lack of commercially available zebra-striped fabric; she inked the stripes on the eight zebras herself.

As is the tradition of quiltmakers, Hortense traveled to find appropriate fabrics. Her skill in selecting fabrics represents many hours of study and research. She knew the fabrics that she hadcollected and why she had chosen them-she claimed a “personal relationship” with her collection. Revealing the pride she took in her stash, she made Fabric Bouquet [Figure 8], which features aflowerpot with blossoms in each block. Each motif is made from fabric used in her reproductionquilts, without repetition.56

 

Into a Quilt

 

Hortense Beck loved researching, designing and making the top of a quilt. However, most of the quilts she reproduced were quilted by a professional quilter or a group, such as the Maple HillQuilters of Maple Hill, Kansas. Hortense did occasionally quilt, as with the Sunf]owerquilt from the Shelburne Museum collection: “Now, that’s kindof unique because Iquilted that myself, in my lap. I thought I’d never get through with it, and I don’t know what made me decide to quilt it. I do takepretty good little stitches. I can do it, but I can’t do it on a frame. That’s just out for me. I do it in my

 

 

lap.”57 She had great respect for the women who quilted for her: “I want it understood that a quilt is nothing without a wonderful quilter. I feel that quilting is a work of art, too. I do my little ones myself, but I cannot do a big one.”58 Hortense was frequently asked how long it took her to complete aquilt: “I figured that one of these Baltimore quilts that are so intricate that I can count on a year. Andthat’s sewing three or four hours a day   For

Mary Brown I (Glory, Glory Hallelujah), my quilter, Pat Burgess, spent four hundred and fifty hours.”59

 

Documentation

 

Two boxes of ephemera and two notebooks document Hortense’s quilts and related activities. The boxes, which contain patterns that the Becks made, ribbons from quilt shows, labels from exhibitions, a brief autobiography, and so on, are archived at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. The notebooks document Hortense’s personal quilt journey with comments and pictures, and were loaned to the IQSC when the gift of the quilt collection was made, but were returned eventually to Sarah Kirby, Hortense’s daughter.

Hortense placed documentation on the quilts themselves after hearing a presentation by a guestlecturer at one of her guild meetings. “The chief program that night was to date everything, put yourname on it, and maybe a little something on the back of the quilt  I knew I hadn’t done that, so I

went back through everything I’d already made at that point and got caught up. Since then, I think all myquilts have something on the back of them.⁶⁰

 

Exhibitions and Recognition

 

Hortense Beck’s goal was to recreate these museum quilts for her own enjoyment: “Never sold anything and don’t plan to.”61 However, she was gratified that as her collection grew and evolved, others enjoyed her quilts and recognized her skill, awarding her many ribbons. In 2007 at the Kansas Capital Quilters Guild 17th annual show, Stitched from the Heart, Quilted with Love, Hortense was honored to be the featuredquiltmaker. Particularly meaningful for the Becks was an exhibition at the Masonic Temple in Atwood, Kansas: Airing and Sharing was hung May 27-29, 2000 for the weekend celebration of Hortense’s high school reunion.

 

 

In the summer of 1990 Hortense exhibited at the Mulvane Art Museum of Washburn University inTopeka, Stars and Stripes Forever, made in 1986. [Figure 9] That September, the quilt wasfeatured on the cover of the Washburn Alumni Magazine. The four eagles in Stars and StripesForever are similar to the Baltimore albumquilt motifs of the 1850period now attributed to Mary Simon.Two of the flags contain 29 stars indicating a date of 1847, and the other two flags have 32 starsindicating 1852.⁶² Hortense declared, “I loved this quilt the moment I first saw it.”63 In the shield,Hortense inscribed, “1847-HB-1986.”

In 2007, Hortense’s African-American-inspired quilts were shown together at the Metropolitan Arts Council Gallery in Greenville, South Carolina. The Topeka Capital-Journal published a review of this exhibition of quilts by a noted “Topekan,” stating that the display was developed in conjunction with a play by Grace Cavaliere, called Quilting in the Sun.⁶⁴ When the theater company’s marketing director contacted Hortense, after learning on the internet of her reproduction of Harriet Powers’ famedquilt, Creation of the Animals, she was surprised when Hortense told her “not only did she have the replica, she had ten others.”65 Of course, the gallery took advantage of the opportunity to display all of the quilts together.

But exhibitions had become difficult for the Becks. The Topeka Capital­ Journal quotedHortense four years earlier: “‘I’m tired,’ the 83 year old said, adding that transporting and displaying the quilts was getting to be too much for her and her husband, Joseph Beck.”⁶⁶ It was hard work for the Becks to pack up the quilts, deliver them, oversee their mounting and then return to the exhibitionplace, repack the quilts and bring them home.

A  year  after  the  display  of  Hortense’s  African-American  quilt

reproductions, her collection was donated to the IQSC. Two rotations of the Hortense Horton BeckEducation Collection were mounted in the Education Center in the summer and autumn of 2009. Theaudience response was very positive, fulfilling the desire of both Hortense and the IQSC that visitors see the quilts’ aesthetic and technical value, and the stories they tell. Quilters have also communicateda sense of empowerment, a feeling that “if Hortense can do this, I can too.”

Achieving Hortense’s goal that a gift of her reproductions to the IQSC would make significant American quilts available for viewing by a wider audience, her version of the ReconciliationQuilt [Figure 10] was hung at the Nebraska State Capitol in the fall of 2009, along with an exhibition telling

 

 

the story of Lincoln’s presidency. In 1991, the original Reconciliation Quilt caused excitement in the quilt and folk art communities, when America Hurrah Antiques purchased it for $264,000 at Sotheby’s. The “picture blocks” illustrate daily life and social issues of Reconstruction after the Civil War. In 2001, the Robert and Ardis James Foundation donated the original quilt to the IQSC. Hortense’s version of theReconciliation Quilt was displayed in conditions that would not have been acceptable for such a valuable original textile.

Hortense discovered English Medallion, made by Sarah Thomas ca. 18211822, [Figure 11) in anArchitectural Digest advertisement for Christie’s Auction House.⁶⁷ As much as Sarah Thomas’s design appealed to Hortense, the poignant request inscribed on the quilt,”WhenThis You See, Remember Me,” spoke across the generations. Hortense inscribed her reproduction English Medallion similarly, signing her own name, “Hortense Horton Beck, 1822-1988,” connecting the twoquilts and their makers. As remembered by friend Frankie Best (who was present for Hortense’s interview with Carolyn Ducey), “She frequently included inscriptions that related herself to the original quiltmaker. Hortense tells me that when she’s doing these quilts she

…  feels like she knows the person who made the quilt originally.”68

In the same manner, Hortense made a connection to Mary Brown of the East Nottingham area of Cecil County, Maryland, whose quilt [Color Plate 5) is profiled in A Maryland Album, QuiltmakingTraditions,l 6341934. Hortense first saw Mary Brown’s quilt in a 1994 Christie’s auction catalog. In her notebook, she wrote on the auction picture, “I used this picture to make mine, 2004.” The owner at that time placed the quilt for auction as “she hoped it would find its way to a safe environment where it would be professionally cared for yet made available for others to enjoy and study.”69 Hortense certainly understood such a motivation. Mary Brown signed her quilt [Color Plate 6),

Mary Brown

Made in the 75th year of her age 1851.

In    kinship    with    Mary    Brown,    Hortense    signed    her     reproduction [Color Plate 5),

Hortense Beck

Made in the 85th year of her age 2005.

 

 

A Generational Kinship

Hortense Beck received and passed along the knowledge and experience of previous generations of quiltrnakers, creating a linkage for audiences now and in the future to also learn from quiltrnakers in the past. She was a member of “The Greatest Generation,” raised during the Great Depression and comingof age while experiencing the challenges and traumas of World War 11.⁷⁰ Her home state of Kansas is known for quilters with excellent skills during that difficult period, including Rose Kresinger and Charlotte Jane Whitehill, both from Emporia. Hortense admired these quiltrnakers, as well as hergrandmother, who “always had a quilt on her lap.” Americans preparing for the 1976 Bicentennialgave rise to the quilting renaissance of the 1970s, offering an opportunity for Hortense to deepen andmake more personal her exploration of history through her carefully reproduced quilts. Hortense’s generation became a bridge between Depression era and Bicentennial quiltrnakers. The cycle continues: Bicentennial quiltrnakers now mentor the current quilting generation.

Quiltmakers and quilt historians have been learning by studying and

making reproductions since the Colonial Revival of the early 20th century. Creating reproductionsprovides a feeling of continuity of time and artistry, and a spiritual connection between generations. Interest in creating reproductions occurs especially during periods marking an historical anniversary and in times of social and economic upheaval: the 1876 Centennial, Colonial Revival, the GreatDepression, the Bicentennial and, most recently, the Civil War Sesquicentennial.

Hortense Beck used her museum replicas to help today’s audience value and remember the work of earlier quiltmakers, to illustrate history, and to demonstrate excellent technical standards. Personally, she felt a spiritual kinship between the original quiltrnaker and herself. As she was inspired by thesequiltrnakers before her, so her work offers the opportunity for others to experience a spiritual kinship to previous generations.

As she so deeply desired, Hortense Horton Beck did something important.