Heritage Quilt Project of New Jersey Records

Written and photographic documentation of over 2,600 individual quilts and related administrative records of the statewide project which gathered the data. The quilt documentation portion of the records incorporates information on 258 quilts from a separate Hunterdon County quilt search, 1997-1999, which used the same documentation standard as the broader effort.

The written documentation for the quilts, grouped by date of recording, consists of quilt summary sheets (except for the added Hunterdon County examples) and of individual quilt registration forms. The summary sheets note each quilt's assigned number, an estimated date of creation, a place of origin, the year brought to New Jersey (if relevant), whether there is a known maker, the town in which made (if known), ownership within the maker's family (or not), the quilt pattern's name or design, a condition code and occasionally other brief comments. The registration forms, completed partly by the owners and partly by volunteer project staff members, contain greater detail about each quilt. These forms record information concerning a quilt's owner, history, maker and physical makeup (including an analysis of its front, back, edge, batting and method of assembly).

The approximately 4,800 unique photographs of quilts are largely slide transparencies (especially Ektachrome). They consist of images of entire quilts (which seldom actually include all four edges) and of quilt details (usually one for each item that was also photographed in its entirety). In some instances, but chiefly for the Hunterdon County quilts documented later, the photographs are actually in the form of color prints. The main sequence of color slides occasionally is supplemented by black-and-white prints, but these latter photographs ordinarily represent the exact same images which appear in the slides. In additional instances (e.g., for quilts in one museum's collection), there are no photographs present, only paper documentation. The other photographs in the Heritage Quilt Project of New Jersey's records chiefly illustrate the quilt documentation process and the New Jersey museum installations of the project's traveling exhibit.

The administrative records, largely kept by president Barbara Schaffer, consist of documentation relating to creating the organization, arranging for each "Quilt Discovery Day" or other recordation session, creating and promoting the project's book (New Jersey Quilts, 1777 to 1950), creating and promoting the project-related traveling exhibit and participating in local, state and national events pertaining to American quilts (e.g., project representatives lecturing individually or speaking at symposia). Also included are informational files concerning other state quilt projects, which sometimes include publications.