Solar system quilt
This gigantic, gorgeous 19th-century quilt depicting the Solar System hangs at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian. The story of the maker, an early woman astronomer is really amazing, too.
Solar System Quilt (via Craft)
This Solar System quilt was made by Ellen Harding Baker of Cedar County, Iowa, in 1876. It is 89" long and 106" wide. The wool top of this applique quilt is embellished with wool-fabric applique, wool braid, and wool and silk embroidery. Included in the design is the appliqued inscription, "Solar System," and the embroidered inscriptions, "E. H. Baker" and "A. D. 1876." The lining is a red cotton-and-wool fabric and the filling is of cotton fiber.The maker, Sarah Ellen Harding, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1847, and married Marion Baker of Cedar County, Iowa, on October 10, 1867. They lived in Cedar County until 1878, then moved to Johnson County where Marion had a general merchandise business in Lone Tree. Ellen had seven children before she died of tuberculosis in the spring of 1886. The design of Ellen's striking and unusual quilt resembles illustrations in astronomy books of the period. Ellen used the quilt as a visual aid for lectures she gave on astronomy in the towns of West Branch, Moscow, and Lone Tree, Iowa. Astronomy was an acceptable interest for women in the 19th century, and was sometimes even fostered in their education.
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The clusters of dots and concentric lines remind me of traditional art styles of the Australian Aborigine. At times, also, like the hermetic illustrations of alchemical principals. Nice.
As someone who loves all things astronomical, who has lived in Iowa (Johnson County no less), who admires a nice quilt and who knows and appreciates 19th and early 20th century female astronomers... all I can say is HOLY CRAP BATMAN!!!
Cory, thanks so much for posting this. I've been reading Sky & Telescope since I was a pup and I've visited the National Museum of American History a few times, but I'd never seen this before. I'm blown away.
I'm going now to plan my high-tech heist on the Smithsonian, ala that movie National Treasure, just to steal this so I can look at it every day.
The following year Hall discovered Mars' two satellites. Baker must've been ripshit.
"an acceptable interest for women in the 19th century"
A poignant discovery ... and a poignant reminder of the work of Henrietta Swan Leavitt, who, working at Harvard, reported in 1912 that Cepheid variables had periods related to their luminosity ... creating a yardstick for measuring distances in the Universe.
Too bad mankind was held back so long by paternalistic estimations of people's capacities (e.g. John Harrison's struggle to get paid for creating his longitude clock, Ramanajan's struggle to get noticed, people laughing at Jan Matzeliger's invention). It'd suck to get dragged back into such an arrogant, backward era ... like AM radio has.
Hey, I wonder if we can "date" the image: when was the last time the solar system was arranged like that, with the planets having those positions relative to each other? How often does this repeat? I'm not sure that this is a sensible question, but hey, that's never stopped me asking...
Well, that's beautiful.
Jake, I also noticed the Iowa stuff straight off. It's weird realizing that these places existed before I came around to make them real.
I really like how she did the asteroid belt.
Seeing this made me happy on all kinds of levels for all kinds of reasons. Thank you.
As a 25-year resident of Johnson County, Iowa, I couldn't be more proud. I'm glad this was in the Smithsonian instead of the county historical museum - it got flooded this spring, along with just about everything else.
THE BIG YELLOW ONE IS THE SUN!
(if you get the reference, we should become friends)
where's Nibiru?
I made a quilt of an array of Hubble pics that appeared in the March, 2007 National Geographic, and it won first prize in the local county fair. Too bad I can't post a pic. As a whole design, though, I like this one more.
I kept looking for the indication that this was fiction...imagine my brain bursting in happy effervescent bubbliness upon finally realizing REAL...IS REAL.
WOW!!!
Hah. Further proof that Iowans (even adopted ones) truly are totally kick ass awesome in so many strange and surprising ways.