From July 2019 to February 2022, Historic Arkansas Museum displayed quilts, many from our Arkansas Made collection, in the exhibit, “Stitched Together: A Treasury of Arkansas Quilts.” We followed the process of taking the exhibit down and document how our curators care for these amazing artifacts.

The process is a meticulous and delicate one. Victoria Chandler, curator of collections, takes you through each step.

First, the display glass is removed using tools that suction to the glass to make handles. Inside, the quilts are carefully attached to display panels so a team effort was needed to get the quilt display down onto sawhorses so that the quilt can lay flat and staff can have access to all sides.

The quilt was attached to the display backing using pins and Velcro. After checking for all the pins, the Velcro was separated using a bone file. Then, Victoria along with Carey Voss, curator of exhibits, and other staff members carefully removed stitching that held the Velcro in place.

Next is the delicate process of removing the stitches holding the Velcro strips to the quilt. The thread chosen matched closely to that of the quilt stitching so the staff had to be careful not to cut the wrong one.

Once the stitching is removed, the quilt is folded and walked to the quilt table where it’s rolled with tissue paper. Rolling the quilt helps keep it in the best shape with no creasing or unnecessary wear and tear. If the quilt were folded they would have to be repeatedly refolded to keep from creasing. After the quilt is rolled up, it’s moved to a temporary space before it’s moved to a permanent storage facility.

Historic Arkansas Museum is proud to have over 600 quilts in its collection. Victoria says that at least half of these quilts have been verified as Arkansas Made, a specific area of focus for the museum’s collection. To store the items safely, our climate-controlled facility has specially designed quilt panels made up of 10 rolls each with at least three to four quilts per roll.

Additionally, a few years ago, the museum got a quilt cabinet, about 12 feet by 12 feet, where the quilts can lay flat and be pulled out by drawer. The museum hopes to put this into use so that visitors and researchers alike can get a closer look at the quilts.