04/13/2012
Sunday is the 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Helen Churchill Candee a Norwalk resident born in 1858 who survived the sinking and is thought to have recovered at the Lockwood Mathews Mansion.
Pictured here is an album quilt book created by quilt artist Karen Maru in 2011. Karen used the Norwalk Museum collections to research Helen's life and early education in Norwalk. When she learned that we were doing a quilt exhibit she generously donated her album quilt book to the Museum.
Now on display at the Museum. Come and check out the quilts on display.
Format: album quilt book, 20” X 20”
Materials: cotton cloth, thread, embroidery floss, printed images, paper, print, beads and other embellishments
Techniques: piecework, embroidery
Donor: Karen Maru
NM 11.39.1
This unusual quilt construction is the work of quilt artist Karen Maru. Made in fabric book format, the book employs quilting techniques and needlework embroidery to tell the biographical story of Helen Churchill Candee (1858 – 1949), a remarkable Norwalk native. Until recently, album quilts were bed sized but contemporary quilt artists have altered the traditional format (see the Burning of Norwalk quilt in this exhibition) to create a new branch of quilting.
The book tells about Helen Churchill Candee, author, explorer, and suffragist. Born in New York City and educated in Norwalk she married Norwalk businessman Edward W. Candee. Her books on home decoration pioneered the field; she wrote eight books in all; including two on Cambodia. She was a leader in the suffragist movement and led the 1913 parade in Washington D.C. She is also famous as a survivor of the Titanic sinking, and wrote the first reports based on personal experience to be published after the 1912 disaster.
If you know anything about Helen Churchill Candee or her husband Edward W. Candee, please contact the museum staff.
