Contact: Melissa Reifert
June 22, 2007

“Historic Quilts” Exhibited in MECC’s Slemp Gallery through August 16

The air conditioning in the Wampler Library at Mountain Empire Community College may cause visitors to wish they had a big, warm quilt in which to wrap themselves, but the quilts currently displayed on the walls of the library’s Slemp Gallery are only to be admired and not touched, with some of them well over 100 years old. “Historic Quilts,” an exhibit of quilt masterpieces, is presented at MECC by the Southwest Virginia Museum in Big Stone Gap.

As told by museum staff in the exhibit, quilts were part of the fabric of life in Southwest Virginia. They were both a practical necessity and an avenue for artistic expression. “Quilting bees” became popular social events when groups of women gathered to work together on a quilt. Quilts were frequently given as gifts on special occasions such as weddings. Therefore, they often became treasured family heirlooms.

One such heirloom being shown at MECC is a “feed sack” quilt donated to the museum by Katie MacMillian of Virginia Beach. The quilt was made by her great-grandmother, Mrs. Alpha Slemp Habern, who was born in 1836 in Turkey Cove, Lee County, Virginia. Habern was the aunt of C. Bascom Slemp, private secretary to President Calvin Coolidge, eight-term U.S. Congressman, and former owner of the house that is now the Southwest Virginia Museum.

The quilt has been handed down through generations of the Slemp and Habern family for over 100 years. According to museum staff, it is a true example of Southwest Virginia craftsmanship at its best.

Another quilt in the exhibit at MECC is called “Martha Washington’s Petticoat,” named because the red squares found in the quilt are pieces from Martha Washington’s brocaded silk petticoat, worn while she was the nation’s first “first lady.” The quilt was given to Miss Betty Landon Berkeley by Mrs. R.M.T. Hunter (Martha Dandridge) of Fort Hill, Essex County, Virginia. Hunter was a niece and namesake of Washington.

These works of art, along with other spectacular quilts from the Southwest Virginia Museum collection, can be viewed at MECC’s Slemp Gallery until August 16. The Slemp Gallery is located in the Wampler Library of Robb Hall. Summer hours are Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Picture Caption: “Martha Washington’s Petticoat” is just one of the masterpieces on display in “Historic Quilts,” exhibited by the Southwest Virginia Museum at Mountain Empire Community College’s Slemp Gallery until August 16.

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