Cotton Quilt

1850

This hand-pieced cotton quilt was made by Sophia Root Moore around 1850. Sophia Moore was the matriarch of a prominent Linn County farming family that produced over 40 quilts between 1855 and 1940. Some of these quilts are believed to have been started by Sophia Moore in the 1850’s and finished by the family’s descendants in the 1930’s and 1940’s. The Linneus farm, where Sophia Moore established the Moore family quilting tradition, grew to include several prominent buildings over time.

The quilt collection, housed in the Missouri Historic Costume and Textile Collection at the University of Missouri, represents the ever-changing roles of women in Missouri, as well as the evolution of technology and availability of fabric during the mid-nineteenth early twentieth centuries. This particular cotton triangle quilt, hand-pieced and quilted by Sophia Moore, is comprised of both homespun cloth and machine-made fabric, as well as some traditional shirt patterns for men. The quilt is a prime example of the evolution of Missouri’s economy in the decades preceding the Civil War. While some Missouri women continued to spin and weave to produce homespun cloth, factory-produced material was increasingly available due to the riverboat trade and the arrival of the railroads. Over time, cheap machine-made textiles and ready-made apparel became the fabric and clothing of choice. Yet quilting persisted as a folk art, as is demonstrated by the lengthy time span of the Moore quilt collection and the popularity of Hamilton’s Missouri Star Quilt Company today.