USPS Issues Stamps Honoring Quiltmaker Harriet Powers
The U.S. Postal Service has released a new set of four commemorative stamps celebrating the work of Harriet Powers. Powers, a former slave born in 1837, was a pioneering 19th-century quiltmaker and storyteller whose masterpieces are featured on the new stamps.
Only two of Harriet Powers' masterful story quilts are known to survive today: the *Bible Quilt* (1886) and the *Pictorial Quilt* (1898). The former resides at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, while the latter is housed at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Powers' quilts chronicle both biblical tales and contemporary events, using a bold appliqué technique with West African roots. The *Bible Quilt* depicts stories like Adam and Eve, the Last Supper, and the crucifixion. The *Pictorial Quilt* includes not only religious scenes but also records of local history and natural phenomena, such as the Leonid meteor shower of 1833 and a major snowstorm in 1780. She first exhibited her *Bible Quilt* at the Athens, Georgia, Cotton Fair in 1886. There, it captivated Jennie Smith, a local artist and teacher who immediately offered to purchase it. Initially, Powers refused to sell her creation. However, facing financial hardship four years later, she sold the cherished quilt to Smith for just five dollars, after her husband urged her to do so. Before parting with it, Powers carefully explained the meaning of each of the 11 panels, and Smith recorded her descriptions. The faculty women of Atlanta University commissioned the *Pictorial Quilt* from Powers. This 15-panel work also blends biblical narratives with real-world occurrences, including "Cold Thursday" on February 10, 1895, a day so cold it was said icicles formed from a mule's breath and all the bluebirds were killed. Considered the mother of African American folk art pictorial quilts, Powers created a visual language that blended her faith, cultural heritage, and personal experiences. For a Black woman born into slavery, it is exceptionally rare that her work was not only preserved but also correctly attributed to her by name.
