Decorative Arts Center of Ohio -- Reese-Peters House
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Quilt Fragment

1/28/2022

 
MARY TODD LINCOLN QUILT 
Elizabeth Keckley (1818-1907) was a former enslaved woman who became a talented dressmaker in Washington, DC. She cultivated a clientele comprised of the wives of high-profile politicians, among them President Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. The two women became close friends, and according to tradition, Keckley retained scraps of fabric from the cloak Mrs. Lincoln wore to Ford’s Theater the night the president was assassinated. In 1892, Keckley took a position teaching sewing and domestic arts at Wilberforce University near Dayton.  

While at Wilberforce, Keckley apparently met Sarah Cordelia Bierce Scarborough (1851-1933), another professor at Wilberforce and the wife of William Sanders Scarborough (who served as Wilberforce president from 1908-1920). According to family tradition, Sarah acquired some of the Mary Todd Lincoln fabric scraps from Keckley and incorporated them into this quilt top, which then descended in her family until donated to the Western Reserve Historical Society.  

Elizabeth Keckley authored a memoir in 1868 titled Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House. 



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Decorative Arts Center of Ohio
145 E. Main St.
Lancaster, Ohio 43130
Phone: 740-681-1423