Proquest Dissertations
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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMl directly to order. Bell & Howell Information and Leaming 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 UMT “IN THE OLD DAYS, THEY USED SCRAPS”: GENDER, LEISURE, COMMODIFICATION, AND THE MYTHOLOGY OF QUILTMAKING, WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO, 1915-1995 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Valerie Sanders Rake, M. Liberal S t ***** The Ohio State University 2000 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Claire C. Robertson, Advisor Dr. Susan M. Hartmann Dr. Richard Shtels Dr. Patricia Cunningham D epartm ents History UMl Number 9971621 Copyright 2000 by Rake, Valerie Sanders All rights reserved. UMl’ UMl M(croform9971621 Copyright 2000 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Leaming Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Copyright by Valerie Sanders Rake 2000 ABSTRACT This dissertation compares and contrasts the experiences of women in Wayne County, Ohio, who began making quilts in three time periods: the 1920s and 1930s, the 1940s through the 1960s, and the 1970s and 1980s. I argue that while the economic, domestic and community contexts within which quiltmaking took place changed dramatically during the twentieth century, some women continued or began to make quilts because it allowed them to engage in a gender-sanctioned creative activity that reinforced the importance they placed on their roles as wives and mothers. In each time period discussed in this study, women had more access to educational and economic opportunities. They were also increasingly likely to experience quiltmaking not as a pleasurable extension of domestic skills and resources but as a personal, commercialized, consumerized, and commoditized leisure activity. They were also more likely as the century progressed to view quiltmaking as a potential source of income. Some women, especially in Mennonite groups, used the commercialization of quiltmakmg to increase them access to public authority. In this commercialized context, a persistent mythology about quiltmaking fimctioned to connect women to a particular vision of the American past in which the importance of “the &miiy* and women’s roles as wives and mothers was presumably unquestioned. By u embracing these images, women connected themselves with those values and minimized the commodified nature of their choice o f leisure activity. This dissertation provides one possible answer to the question of why women continue to make quilts, an answer that analyzes: why women specifically make quilts; the relationship between historical and contemporary quiltmaking; and quiltmaking as a leisure activity and as a source of, and claim on, income. It makes visible the connections between quiltmakers and commodification in the sale of quilt-related products and services. It also makes clear the connections between this myth-obscured commodification and the decisions of some women to preserve and honor gender constructions that make them primarily responsible for home and family. u i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Before all else, I would like to thank the quiltmakers of Wayne County who welcomed me into their homes and invited me to meetings of their sewing groups. Their Mendliness and willingness to share a part of their lives made this a very enjoyable project. I would also like to thank the leaders o f church groups who not only located records for me but also found spaces where I could work. In this regard, I extend a special thanks to Celia Lehman, who organized my access to the records of the Ohio Mennonite Relief Sale Board and arranged a meeting for me with members of the Relief Sale Quilt Committee. Two members of the Relief Sale Board, Laurel Hurst and Ron Reimer, also earned special thanks for providing me with additional information. John Hostetler, Peter Passage, and Cindy Smoker at the Mennonite Central Committee offices in Akron, Pennsylvania, were very helpful in explaining the intricacies of Anabaptist charity. I would also like to recognize the members of the American Quilt Study Group, whose work over the last twenty years made this research possible. I owe a special debt o f gratitude to Russell McQuate and his late wifo, Maxme. En spite of Maxine^s worsenmg health, they generously provided me not only a place to stay in Wayne County, but also home-cooked meals, enormous bowls of ice cream, and their ffiendship. iv Barb Jardee, Kathy Wilcox, Katheiine Alspaugh, Kai Tarot, and Judi Miller did a marvelotis job transcribing interviews. Kai Tarot also did heroic service as copy-editor. I would like to thank my advisor, Claire Robertson, for not only giving me the intellectual tools and fîeedom to write the dissertation I wanted to write, but also for helping me articulate my ideas. This dissertation was supported by a Graduate Student Alumni Research Award hom The Ohio State University Graduate School in Sprmg 1997 and an Elizabeth D. Gee Grant for Research on Women from The Ohio State University Department of Women’s Studies in Spring 1999. Parts of chapters 4,5 ,6 were previously published as “A Thread of Continuity: Quiltmaking in Wayne County, Ohio, Mennonite Churches, 1890s - 1990s,” which appeared in Uncoverings 1999y the yearly publication of the American Quilt Study Group. Finally, 1 would like to thank my family for their continuing support of my academic goals, my friends for the much welcome escape from “real world” that they provide, and most of all, my husband Michael. He is the greatest gifr of all. VITA 1988 ...........................................................3 .S . Women’s Studies* University of Utah 1990...........................................................M . Liberal Studies in Women’s Studies, The Ohio State University 1989-1993................................................ .Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University 1996 — present .......................................... Graduate Administrative Associate, The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS ‘A Thread of Continuity: Quiltmaking in Wayne County, Ohio, Mennonite Churches, 1890s - 1990s.” In Uncoverings 1999, ed. Virginia Gunn, 32-62. San Francisco: American Quilt Study Group, 1999. ‘Quilts at the Ohio Mennonite Relief Sale.” In History ofthe Ohio Mennonite Relief Sale, ed. Celia Lehman, 46-49. Sugarcreek, OH: by the editor, 1998. ‘American Quilt Study Group Seminar,” Quilt Ohio, Fall 1998,23-24. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History Specializations: Womoi’s History Modem U.S. History Early U.S. History VI TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................. iv Vita..................................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures .................................................................................................................... ix Chapters: 1. Introduction ...............................................................................................................l 2. Quiltmaking in the Twentieth Century: Myth and Reality .................................... 50 3. Making Quilts in Wayne County: Shared Experiences ------------------------------- 99 4. The First Quiltmakmg Revival in Wayne County: 1910s through 1930s ............................................................................................135 5. The Beginnings of Commoditization: 1940s through 1960s ............................................................................................173 6. Revival?: Commoditization and Transformation, 1970s through 1990s _____________________________________________ JZ04 7. Business as Leisure?: Five Case Studies of Quilt Businesses ______________ ^45 8. Commoditization and Chari^: The Ohio Mennonite Relief Sale and Quilt Auction, 1966 to 1995 _____________________________________ 275 9. Conclusion ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------