USPS Honors Quiltmaker Harriet Powers
The U.S. Postal Service has dedicated a new set of commemorative stamps celebrating the work of Harriet Powers, a pioneering 19th-century quiltmaker and storyteller who was born into slavery. The stamps feature four of her iconic quilt masterpieces.
Only two of Harriet Powers' narrative quilts are known to survive today, making them invaluable artifacts of American folk art. Her "Bible Quilt" is housed at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, while the "Pictorial Quilt," featured on the stamps, resides at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Born in 1837 near Athens, Georgia, Powers learned to sew on the plantation where she was enslaved. After emancipation, she and her husband, Armstead Powers, became landowners, though they later faced financial hardship. It was during a period of financial difficulty that she sold her cherished "Bible Quilt" for five dollars to a local artist named Jennie Smith, who recognized its unique artistic merit. Powers' quilts are celebrated for their appliqué technique, a style with roots in West Africa, which she used to depict biblical stories and local historical events. The "Pictorial Quilt," created in 1898, features 15 panels illustrating scenes like the story of Jonah, the Leonid meteor shower of 1833, and a local story of a man who froze at his liquor jug. The first-day-of-issue ceremony for the Harriet Powers Forever stamps was held on February 28, 2026, in Washington, D.C. The event was held in partnership with the Association for the Study of African American Life and History as part of their Black History Month celebration. Harriet Powers referred to her "Bible Quilt" as "the darling off-spring of my brain." She personally explained the meaning of each panel to Jennie Smith, who recorded the descriptions in her diary, preserving the quilt's narrative for future generations. Powers' work was largely forgotten for decades after her death in 1910 and was rediscovered in the 1970s. She is now considered a mother of the African American story quilt tradition, and her work is praised for its powerful blend of faith, history, and personal experience.
