Housetop Center Medallion Quilt, 1970s
Annie Mae Young (1928–2013)
Cotton and corduroy, 91 × 79 in. (231.1 × 200.7 cm)
Souls Grown Deep Foundation

Before the early 2000s, quiltmakers from Gee’s Bend, Alabama, had thought of their quilts not as works of art, but as items born of domestic necessity. Using old clothes, sheets, potato sacks, and other textile scraps, quiltmakers such as Annie Mae Young created beautiful and functional items now regarded as important markers of African American cultural heritage in the American South. In recent years, renewed attention to these quilts has led to a revival of interest in quiltmaking in Gee’s Bend, fostering a new generation of quiltmakers in the community. Crucially, much as the practice of quiltmaking is, in itself, a form of conservation, the continued transmission of this craft knowledge and sustenance of its communities of makers keeps these practices alive.