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For Immediate Release
December 3, 2009 Home page of the updated and expanded Quilt Index Website (www.quiltindex.org).
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Contact: Amy E. Milne, Executive Director
The Alliance for American Quilts
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MAJOR EXPANSION OF THE QUILT
INDEX:
Thousands more
historic and contemporary quilts now online
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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.
 New 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.
 Pictured at left: A view of the
"Friendship and Family" gallery showcasing quilts submitted to the Signature
Quilt Project.
 Pictured 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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