Appliqué Kit Quilt
Selma Appel
East Lansing, Ingham County, Michigan
c1940
Cotton
76 1/2” x 93”
MSUM 7183.1, Gift of Selma Appel
Photo by KEVA, all rights reserved Michigan State University Museum

The MSU Museum was saddened by the recent loss of a long time MSU Museum Research Associate and great supporter and friend, Selma Appel. An avid textile artist, this Appliqué Kit Quilt was the first quilt Selma ever made. Selma served as a co-curator for our exhibition on lacemaking traditions in 1999. Along with her guild, the Capitol Area Lace Makers, Selma was featured twice at the Great Lakes Folk Festival.

The MSU Museum is home to the John and Selma Appel Collection of Ethnic Images, one of the nation's foremost collections of printed ephemera depicting ethnic stereotypes in caricature and cartoons. The Appels worked together to amass this amazing collection and donated it to the MSU Museum in 1995. The collection is actively used for exhibition, research and publication. For more information about the John and Selma Appel Collection, please go to http://museum.msu.edu/s-program/mtap/Collections/appel.html.

By Mary Worrall