The quilts displayed here are undeniable expressions of women’s political and patriotic opinions—sensibilities portrayed with needle and thread. They are vital to our understanding of women’s experiences, as many quilts were made during a time when women did not have the opportunity to participate in other types of art making or writing nor were they able to exercise their right to vote. Quiltmaking gave women a vehicle to express opinions and advocate for social change in movements such as abolition, women's suffrage, and temperance.

American quiltmaking is a 400-year story of global trade, technology, and entrepreneurial imagination. The introduction of cotton fabrics and design from India and Asian countries in the seventeenth century prompted developments in textile production that helped to launch the Industrial Revolution. In turn, those advances made cotton textiles, the “thread” that holds the story of quiltmaking together, available to all.

For “Sunshine Joe” Mallard, quilting is both a personal inheritance and a way of recording the world around him. He traces his earliest connection to the practice to his great-great-grandmother, Mandy Green, who was born into slavery. When he was a child, she encouraged him not to worry about what others said he could not do, but to focus instead on what he could create. Years later, a television segment featuring Roosevelt “Rosey” Grier of the Los Angeles Rams doing needlework to relieve stress gave Mallard the confidence to begin quilting himself.

The International Quilt Museum is located on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's East Campus. The building and its garden were all designed with quilts and quiltmaking in mind.

In the tabs below, you can learn more about the design of the building and garden.