One of the more interesting aspects of working at Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village is getting to see our Collections Storage facility, a 5,000 square foot temperature controlled environment in which the museum's 30,000+ collection and archives are housed. Thanks to the museum's Behind the Scenes Collection Storage Tours, visitors can see firsthand how artifacts are stored and preserved for future use.
Due to time restrictions, our curators will only be giving tours for one particular section of the storage area. They will be familiarizing visitors with a wide array of fabric prints in historic 19th century quilts.
At the outset of the 19th century, nearly everyone made quilts by repeatedly sewing together a length of the same fabric. When people were left with excess fabric, they began to sew pieced, or layered, quilts. They could cut out shapes or images from the extra material and sew them on top of the blanket.
Surprisingly, the manner of coloring quilts in the 19th century (using vegetable dyes that were extracted from flowers, herbs, and bark) is still popular today. The process gives colors a rich, deep tone. Thus, even today, it's not too difficult to reproduce quilts that were made in the 19th century.
The "Fabrics in Historic Quilts" tour will take place on two days: Thursday, September 26th and Saturday, September 28th. Each day will have two sessions.
Thursday: 1:00-3:00 PM and 7:00-9:00 PM.
Saturday: 10:00 AM-12:00 PM and 1:00-3:00 PM.
Cost is $20 per person.
We hope to see you there!
Due to time restrictions, our curators will only be giving tours for one particular section of the storage area. They will be familiarizing visitors with a wide array of fabric prints in historic 19th century quilts.
At the outset of the 19th century, nearly everyone made quilts by repeatedly sewing together a length of the same fabric. When people were left with excess fabric, they began to sew pieced, or layered, quilts. They could cut out shapes or images from the extra material and sew them on top of the blanket.
Surprisingly, the manner of coloring quilts in the 19th century (using vegetable dyes that were extracted from flowers, herbs, and bark) is still popular today. The process gives colors a rich, deep tone. Thus, even today, it's not too difficult to reproduce quilts that were made in the 19th century.
The "Fabrics in Historic Quilts" tour will take place on two days: Thursday, September 26th and Saturday, September 28th. Each day will have two sessions.
Thursday: 1:00-3:00 PM and 7:00-9:00 PM.
Saturday: 10:00 AM-12:00 PM and 1:00-3:00 PM.
Cost is $20 per person.
We hope to see you there!