Cuesta Benberry

(Thanks to Mack ("backwage") for sending this. -- Nann)

************************************
Cuesta Benberry, 83; leading quilt scholar

Though not a quilter herself, she patched together the history of the art
form, revealing where patterns came from and the people who made them.
By Patricia Sullivan, The Washington Post
September 5, 2007
Cuesta Benberry, one of the nation's foremost quilt scholars who pieced
together the history of the art from castoff patches of information, died of
congestive heart failure Aug. 23 at Forest Park Hospital in St. Louis. She
was 83.

Benberry's research was so fundamental that "in nearly every quilt book
today, Cuesta Benberry will be quoted in the text or her name will appear in
the bibliography," the Quilters Hall of Fame noted when she was inducted in
1983.

"She began to look very seriously at all the aspects of quiltmaking -- where
patterns came from, the people who made them -- at a time when people
weren't looking at quilts, much less the history of quilts," said Bettina
Havig, a quilt historian from Columbia, Mo.

Not a quilter herself, Benberry nevertheless became interested in the art
and craft when her mother-in-law gave her a quilt. When she visited her
in-laws, who lived in Kentucky, she began to learn about the pride that
women took in that work.

"I think we get so emotional about quilts because they're such an integral
part of many people's lives," Benberry told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in
1998. "They're on the bed. They're there at birth. They're there at death.
They're part of the marriage bed. They're part of our lives, and they give
us so many memories. . . . You'd call a quilt like you would a child. [Her
mother-in-law would] lift up a trunk lid and say, 'Come see my Sugar Bowl';
she didn't say, 'Come see my blue-and-white quilt.' Then I wanted to learn
more about their history."

Benberry's occupation was teaching in the St. Louis public schools, but her
preoccupation since the 1960s had been learning about quilts, said her son,
George V. Benberry of Elgin, Ill. She collected paper ephemera, which are
the once-overlooked patterns, records and documentation of quilts and
quiltmakers. She is credited with rescuing innumerable documents from
oblivion, researching their importance and communicating that to the world.

"She was a serious scholar at a time when the kinds of conveniences we take
for granted -- digital photography, copying machines, e-mail -- weren't
possible. She did the difficult research," said Xenia Cord of Kokomo, Ind.,
president of the American Quilt Study Group, which Benberry founded.

Born in Cincinnati and raised in St. Louis, Benberry graduated from what is
now Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis. She received a master's
degree in library science from the University of Missouri at St. Louis. She
worked in the local school system for 40 years and retired in 1985.

In a 1998 article she wrote for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Benberry said
that in about 1976 she began focusing on quilts made by African American
women. "I soon realized that any investigation of quilt history, a
female-dominated narrative, would also be closely allied to women's
history," she wrote. Benberry also found that previous exhibitions of quilts
by African American women focused almost exclusively on those from selected
areas of the rural South.

She organized a traveling quilt show for the Kentucky Quilt Project of
Louisville, which demonstrated the breadth of quilts by African Americans.

"African-American quilt makers' backgrounds, living conditions, needs,
access to materials, aesthetic sensibilities, creative impulses and
technical skills were vastly divergent," Benberry wrote in the exhibit
brochure, arguing that no single style represented them. "Thus it is a
simplistic notion that legions of black quilt makers produced works
displaying a single aesthetic orientation."

Benberry, who was honored by the American Folk Art Museum in New York in
2004, wrote four books: "Always The The African-American Presence in
American Quilts" (1992); "Patchwork of Pieces: An Anthology of Early Quilt
Stories, 1845-1940" (1993); "Piece of My Soul: Quilts by Black Arkansans"
(2000); and "Love of Quilts: A Treasury of Classic Quilting Stories" (2004).

The only quilt Benberry made, a sampler, also reflects her research: It is
composed of blocks that appeared in earlier African American quilts.

In addition to her son, survivors include her husband of 56 years, George L.
Benberry of St. Louis; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

RIP Cuesta Benberry - in the Heaven of Quilts.


"Nann Hilyard" wrote in message
. ..
(Thanks to Mack ("backwage") for sending this. -- Nann)

************************************
Cuesta Benberry, 83; leading quilt scholar

Though not a quilter herself, she patched together the history of the art
form, revealing where patterns came from and the people who made them.
By Patricia Sullivan, The Washington Post
September 5, 2007
Cuesta Benberry, one of the nation's foremost quilt scholars who pieced
together the history of the art from castoff patches of information, died
of
congestive heart failure Aug. 23 at Forest Park Hospital in St. Louis. She
was 83.

Benberry's research was so fundamental that "in nearly every quilt book
today, Cuesta Benberry will be quoted in the text or her name will appear
in
the bibliography," the Quilters Hall of Fame noted when she was inducted
in
1983.

"She began to look very seriously at all the aspects of quiltmaking --
where
patterns came from, the people who made them -- at a time when people
weren't looking at quilts, much less the history of quilts," said Bettina
Havig, a quilt historian from Columbia, Mo.

Not a quilter herself, Benberry nevertheless became interested in the art
and craft when her mother-in-law gave her a quilt. When she visited her
in-laws, who lived in Kentucky, she began to learn about the pride that
women took in that work.

"I think we get so emotional about quilts because they're such an integral
part of many people's lives," Benberry told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
in
1998. "They're on the bed. They're there at birth. They're there at death.
They're part of the marriage bed. They're part of our lives, and they give
us so many memories. . . . You'd call a quilt like you would a child. [Her
mother-in-law would] lift up a trunk lid and say, 'Come see my Sugar
Bowl';
she didn't say, 'Come see my blue-and-white quilt.' Then I wanted to learn
more about their history."

Benberry's occupation was teaching in the St. Louis public schools, but
her
preoccupation since the 1960s had been learning about quilts, said her
son,
George V. Benberry of Elgin, Ill. She collected paper ephemera, which are
the once-overlooked patterns, records and documentation of quilts and
quiltmakers. She is credited with rescuing innumerable documents from
oblivion, researching their importance and communicating that to the
world.

"She was a serious scholar at a time when the kinds of conveniences we
take
for granted -- digital photography, copying machines, e-mail -- weren't
possible. She did the difficult research," said Xenia Cord of Kokomo,
Ind.,
president of the American Quilt Study Group, which Benberry founded.

Born in Cincinnati and raised in St. Louis, Benberry graduated from what
is
now Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis. She received a master's
degree in library science from the University of Missouri at St. Louis.
She
worked in the local school system for 40 years and retired in 1985.

In a 1998 article she wrote for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Benberry said
that in about 1976 she began focusing on quilts made by African American
women. "I soon realized that any investigation of quilt history, a
female-dominated narrative, would also be closely allied to women's
history," she wrote. Benberry also found that previous exhibitions of
quilts
by African American women focused almost exclusively on those from
selected
areas of the rural South.

She organized a traveling quilt show for the Kentucky Quilt Project of
Louisville, which demonstrated the breadth of quilts by African Americans.

"African-American quilt makers' backgrounds, living conditions, needs,
access to materials, aesthetic sensibilities, creative impulses and
technical skills were vastly divergent," Benberry wrote in the exhibit
brochure, arguing that no single style represented them. "Thus it is a
simplistic notion that legions of black quilt makers produced works
displaying a single aesthetic orientation."

Benberry, who was honored by the American Folk Art Museum in New York in
2004, wrote four books: "Always The The African-American Presence in
American Quilts" (1992); "Patchwork of Pieces: An Anthology of Early Quilt
Stories, 1845-1940" (1993); "Piece of My Soul: Quilts by Black Arkansans"
(2000); and "Love of Quilts: A Treasury of Classic Quilting Stories"
(2004).

The only quilt Benberry made, a sampler, also reflects her research: It is
composed of blocks that appeared in earlier African American quilts.

In addition to her son, survivors include her husband of 56 years, George
L.
Benberry of St. Louis; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

It is an honor to salute Cuesta Benberry for her
contributions to our art.

PAT in VA/USA
(Thanks to Nann and Mack.)

Nann Hilyard wrote:

(Thanks to Mack ("backwage") for sending this. -- Nann)

************************************
Cuesta Benberry, 83; leading quilt scholar

Though not a quilter herself, she patched together the history of the art
form, revealing where patterns came from and the people who made them.
By Patricia Sullivan, The Washington Post
September 5, 2007
Cuesta Benberry, one of the nation's foremost quilt scholars who pieced
together the history of the art from castoff patches of information, died of
congestive heart failure Aug. 23 at Forest Park Hospital in St. Louis. She
was 83.

Benberry's research was so fundamental that "in nearly every quilt book
today, Cuesta Benberry will be quoted in the text or her name will appear in
the bibliography," the Quilters Hall of Fame noted when she was inducted in
1983.

"She began to look very seriously at all the aspects of quiltmaking -- where
patterns came from, the people who made them -- at a time when people
weren't looking at quilts, much less the history of quilts," said Bettina
Havig, a quilt historian from Columbia, Mo.

Not a quilter herself, Benberry nevertheless became interested in the art
and craft when her mother-in-law gave her a quilt. When she visited her
in-laws, who lived in Kentucky, she began to learn about the pride that
women took in that work.

"I think we get so emotional about quilts because they're such an integral
part of many people's lives," Benberry told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in
1998. "They're on the bed. They're there at birth. They're there at death.
They're part of the marriage bed. They're part of our lives, and they give
us so many memories. . . . You'd call a quilt like you would a child. [Her
mother-in-law would] lift up a trunk lid and say, 'Come see my Sugar Bowl';
she didn't say, 'Come see my blue-and-white quilt.' Then I wanted to learn
more about their history."

Benberry's occupation was teaching in the St. Louis public schools, but her
preoccupation since the 1960s had been learning about quilts, said her son,
George V. Benberry of Elgin, Ill. She collected paper ephemera, which are
the once-overlooked patterns, records and documentation of quilts and
quiltmakers. She is credited with rescuing innumerable documents from
oblivion, researching their importance and communicating that to the world.

"She was a serious scholar at a time when the kinds of conveniences we take
for granted -- digital photography, copying machines, e-mail -- weren't
possible. She did the difficult research," said Xenia Cord of Kokomo, Ind.,
president of the American Quilt Study Group, which Benberry founded.

Born in Cincinnati and raised in St. Louis, Benberry graduated from what is
now Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis. She received a master's
degree in library science from the University of Missouri at St. Louis. She
worked in the local school system for 40 years and retired in 1985.

In a 1998 article she wrote for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Benberry said
that in about 1976 she began focusing on quilts made by African American
women. "I soon realized that any investigation of quilt history, a
female-dominated narrative, would also be closely allied to women's
history," she wrote. Benberry also found that previous exhibitions of quilts
by African American women focused almost exclusively on those from selected
areas of the rural South.

She organized a traveling quilt show for the Kentucky Quilt Project of
Louisville, which demonstrated the breadth of quilts by African Americans.

"African-American quilt makers' backgrounds, living conditions, needs,
access to materials, aesthetic sensibilities, creative impulses and
technical skills were vastly divergent," Benberry wrote in the exhibit
brochure, arguing that no single style represented them. "Thus it is a
simplistic notion that legions of black quilt makers produced works
displaying a single aesthetic orientation."

Benberry, who was honored by the American Folk Art Museum in New York in
2004, wrote four books: "Always The The African-American Presence in
American Quilts" (1992); "Patchwork of Pieces: An Anthology of Early Quilt
Stories, 1845-1940" (1993); "Piece of My Soul: Quilts by Black Arkansans"
(2000); and "Love of Quilts: A Treasury of Classic Quilting Stories" (2004).

The only quilt Benberry made, a sampler, also reflects her research: It is
composed of blocks that appeared in earlier African American quilts.

In addition to her son, survivors include her husband of 56 years, George L.
Benberry of St. Louis; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.