Hanging quilt to dry
Date1930
Artist
Katharine Richardson Wireman
(American illustrator and painter, 1878–1966)
Illustration Citation"Eric and Mary Anne," by Cornelia Meigs, in Child Life, 1930-1931
MediumInk on illustration board
Dimensionscomposition: 6 3/8 × 6 3/8 in. (16.2 × 16.2 cm)
sheet: 14 1/4 × 11 1/8 in. (36.2 × 28.3 cm)
sheet: 14 1/4 × 11 1/8 in. (36.2 × 28.3 cm)
Credit LineGift of Henrietta Wireman Shuttleworth, 2017
Object number2017-57
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextIn this story, daily chores at home and school occupy a family of frontier settlers. Katharine Richardson Wireman enlivened the scenes with various patterns and designs, which create dramatic graphic contrast with the intense blacks of the chalkboard and the space beyond the door. The particular tulip pattern here—in which each flower has five points and a stem with two leaves in a two-color form—was especially popular in late 19th century American quilt design. Although the writer describes Mary Anne as she hangs the "tulip quilt upon the line," this illustration was not published. The artist or editor may have decided not to include it for some reason.
Author Cornelia Meigs grew up in Iowa, where she wrote her first book, a collection of fairy tales. During most of her career she wrote prize-winning fiction and biographies for children. An English professor at her alma mater Bryn Mawr College, she was an authority on children's books.
Katharine Richardson Wireman
1912
