Quilt Index logo
For Immediate Release
December 3, 2009

new QI site

Home page of the updated and expanded Quilt Index Website (www.quiltindex.org).
Contact:
Amy E. Milne, Executive Director
The Alliance for American Quilts
(828) 251-7073
[email protected]


Marsha MacDowell, Curator, Folk Arts
MSU Museum
(517) 290-5195
[email protected]

Dean Rehberger, Director
MATRIX
(517) 355-9300
[email protected]
MAJOR EXPANSION OF THE QUILT INDEX:
Thousands more historic and contemporary quilts now online

ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA and EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN -December 3, 2009- The Quilt Index (www.quiltindex.org) recently launched a major expansion and upgrade -- increasing to nearly 50,000 quilt records and offering new tools for viewing and searching. The website is a partnership project of the Alliance for American Quilts, Michigan State University Museum, and MATRIX: The Center for Humane Arts, Letters and Social Sciences Online at Michigan State University.
 
The Quilt Index website now provides centralized access to nearly 50,000 records, including quilts from state or regional documentation projects, museum and private collections. Ten new projects have been added to the Quilt Index, made possible by a grant from the Preservation and Access Division of the National Endowment for the Humanities, in addition to support from the contributors themselves.
 
Quilt Index_NEQM folk art quiltNew contributors include: the Connecticut Quilt Search, the Hawaiian Quilt Research Project, the Louisiana Regional Folklife Program, Minnesota Quilt Project, New England Quilt Museum/MassQuilts, The Heritage Quilt Project of New Jersey at Rutgers University Libraries/ Special Collections and University Archives, the North Carolina Museum of History, the Rhode Island Quilt Documentation Project at the University of Rhode Island, the West Virginia Heritage Quilt Search, Inc., and the Wyoming Quilt
Project, Inc. 
 
Pictured at left: "Folk Art Quilt," ca. 1865, contributed by the New England Quilt Museum


The expanded Quilt Index website also features a new design and navigation, as well as zoom and comparison tools funded by an Institute for Museum and Library Services National Leadership Grant. The zoom tool allows users to move in close to a quilt's surface and study stitching, embellishment and fabric texture. The compare feature allows users to select images and basic data for multiple quilts to display side by side, enabling easy evaluation (e.g. similar patterns from different collections, geographic locations or time periods).
IMLS funding along with a generous grant from the Salser Family Foundation made possible another compelling component of the expansion: the Signature Quilt Project (SQP), http://www.quiltindex.org/signaturequiltproject.php.The SQP provided an opportunity to pilot the public submission of privately owned quilts.

Quilt Index_SQP galleryPictured at left: A view of the "Friendship and Family" gallery showcasing quilts submitted to the Signature Quilt Project.

Quilt Index_zoom toolPictured at right: "Applique Sampler," made in 1860 and contributed to the Signature Quilt Project by Nan Moore, showing the new zoom tool feature.
 
 





The Quilt Index merges tradition with technology and springs from the work of a unique team of researchers and experts committed to making significant, quilt-related data widely accessible to both scholars and the general public.
    
Applications are now being accepted from institutions or quilt documentation projects to become Quilt Index contributors, with a deadline of March 31, 2010. Information and application materials can be found at: http://www.quiltindex.org/contributors.php
 
Any of the Quilt Index staff listed above would be pleased to answer questions about this major development and enhancement. To obtain quotes and other quilt images to use in your coverage, please contact Amy Milne at the number or email address above.

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