Drunkard's Path quilt, unknown maker from the United States

Exhibition Label:
"Quilts! Imported Fabrics, American Treasures," May-2004, Barbara Brackman
Calico quilts with a simple color scheme allow the quilt maker to create complex and dramatic patchwork. This pattern, usually called “Drunkard’s Path,” was often made as a warning against the evils of drink. Since blue and white were the colors of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, a blue and white quilt in this pattern had much symbolic meaning to those who opposed the sale and consumption of alcohol.

The indigo is probably a synthetic dye, made in a test tube, and imported from Germany, which held a worldwide monopoly on its formula until after World War I. The fabric may have been printed in the United States. A few American mills, for example, the Amana Colonies in Iowa, and Steifel in West Virginia, specialized in producing indigo cottons colored with German dyes.