Pineapple
Maker unknown
Saudertown, Pennsylvania
c.1890
81" x 81"
Cotton
MSU Museum Accession 2001:158.4
Photo by Fumio Ichikawa, all rights reserved by the MSU Museum

During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the "Log Cabin" block pattern became popular. It has many variations, including "Pineapple" (seen here), "Courthouse Steps," "Barn Raising," and "Fields and Furrows." Some textile historians believe that the popularity of the design can be traced to Abraham Lincoln's presidency in the 1860s. Lincoln's childhood spent in an Illinois log cabin was an oft-repeated detail of his biography.

This quilt offers a remarkable fabric study of typical late nineteenth-century fabrics. A wide variety of shirtings, double pinks, butterscotches, stripes, plaids, "Hershey" browns, mourning prints, and others create an encyclopedia of the era's textiles. There are forty-nine 10-inch blocks in the quilt. The second border of pieced green squares placed on point, against a double pink background, adds to the quilt's visual impact. Small-scale, green print fabrics, produced continuously from the late nineteenth century into the twenty-first century, have long been favored by quiltmakers. Because of the long period of time over which some the green fabrics were produced, dating a quilt made of such fabrics can be difficult.

By Mary Worrall, excerpted from American Quilts from Michigan State University Museum.