Memorial Day is a US federal holiday wherein the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces are remembered. The holiday, which is celebrated every year on the final Monday of May, was formerly known as Decoration Day and originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War. By the 20th century, Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who have died while in the military service.
The practice of decorating soldiers' graves with flowers is an ancient custom. Soldiers' graves were decorated in the U.S. before and during the American Civil War. A claim was made in 1906 that the first Civil War soldier's grave ever decorated was in Warrenton, Virginia, on June 3, 1861, implying the first Memorial Day occurred there. Though not for Union soldiers, there is authentic documentation that women in Savannah, Georgia, decorated Confederate soldiers' graves in 1862. In 1863, the cemetery dedication at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was a ceremony of commemoration at the graves of dead soldiers. Local historians in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, claim that ladies there decorated soldiers' graves on July 4, 1864. As a result, Boalsburg promotes itself as the birthplace of Memorial Day.
Following President Abraham Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, there were a variety of events of commemoration. The sheer number of soldiers of both sides who died in the Civil War, more than 600,000, meant that burial and memorialization took on new cultural significance. Under the leadership of women during the war, an increasingly formal practice of decorating graves had taken shape. In 1865, the federal government began creating national military cemeteries for the Union war dead.
The first widely publicized observance of a Memorial Day-type observance after the Civil War was in Charleston, South Carolina, on May 1, 1865. During the war, Union soldiers who were prisoners of war had been held at the Charleston Race Course; at least 257 Union prisoners died there and were hastily buried in unmarked graves. Together with teachers and missionaries, black residents of Charleston organized a May Day ceremony in 1865, which was covered by the New York Tribune and other national papers. The freedmen cleaned up and landscaped the burial ground, building an enclosure and an arch labeled, "Martyrs of the Race Course." Nearly ten thousand people, mostly freedmen, gathered on May 1 to commemorate the war dead. Involved were about 3,000 school children newly enrolled in freedmen's schools, mutual aid societies, Union troops, black ministers, and white northern missionaries. Most brought flowers to lay on the burial field. Today the site is used as Hampton Park. Years later, the celebration would come to be called the "First Decoration Day" in the North.
The International Quilt Study Center & Museum is located on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The Study Center's mission is to inspire an understanding of the cultural and artistic significance of quilts by collecting, preserving, studying, exhibiting and promoting discovery of quilts and quiltmaking traditions from many cultures, countries and times.
Visions Art Museum: Contemporary Quilts + Textiles is a program of Quilt San Diego, a non-profit arts organization founded in 1985 to promote contemporary quilt making as fine art. Until 2007 when volunteers organized a community build and created our permanent location at NTC at Liberty Station in San Diego, California, the organization's only mission was to present the prestigious, international, juried biennial, Quilt Visions, hosted at other museums in the San Diego area.
Texas Quilt Museum, La Grange, Texas
Town Square is a fabric & yarn shop, sewing studio and knitting lounge located in the heart of Burien's
Town Square. The shop has only been open two months! Great fabric
mostly in the modern style, and a nice selection of luscious yarn. If
you are making clothes for children this is the place for you. Easy,
cute patterns, where were they when my grands were small? If you are one
of those knitter and quilter people this is the store for you.
What a treat, Gwen was the featured artist at the Stray Threads Guild Quilt Show last month. She has been working with textiles and mixed media for over ten years. Her background in the arts and interior design comes forward in her vibrant and energized pieces. I know she lectures and teaches quilting in many venues, including working with children in public and private schools. And is the founder of the Pacific NW African American Quilters.
A visit with Katie Pedersen at Covington Quilt Guild. I am a believer in supporting my local quilt guild, all of them. So when I hear that there is going to be a speaker I'd like to hear, I'm there. This time it was Katie. She says " I teach quilting in Seattle. I love cutting fabric to bits and sewing it back together again." Her quilt are like a breath of fresh air. I enjoyed hearing about them.
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