Art Institute of Chicago

"The Settling of the West" Quilt

Mildred Jacobs Chappell · March 1931/September 1932

Provenance

Ownership history

Pat and Rich Gartheoffner, by 1988 [Woodard and Greenstein 1988, 116, fig. 168]. Shelly Zegart (1941-2025; born Rochelle Weiss), Louisville, KY, by 1995 [Clark 1995; invoice, June 14, 1999; copies in curatorial object file]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1999.

Recorded by Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibitions

Chicago, National Quilt Contest, Century of Progress Exposition, Sears, Roebuck and Co., 1933 [Awarded red ribbon for Mail Order Division].
Illinois State Fair, 1933 [Premium Award for Most Artistic Quilt].
Oregon State Fair, 1939 [First Premium Award].
Nashville, TN, Heart of Country, Feb. 1992.
Nashville, TN, A Picture is Worth a 1,000 Words: Pictorial Imagery in American Quilts, Heart of Country, Feb. 1993.
Houston, TX, International Quilt Festival, America Collects Quilts, Nov. 3-6, 1994.
Paducah, KY, Antique Quilts from the Shelly Zegart Collection, Museum of the American Quilter's Society, Apr. 4-July, 18, 1998.
Art Institute of Chicago, Making Memories: Quilts as Souvenirs, Elizabeth F. Cheney and Agnes Allerton Textile Galleries, Oct. 20, 2017–Apr. 1, 2018.
Art Institute of Chicago, American Arts Department, Gallery 263, Window on the West, June 10–Oct. 16, 2003.
Art Institute of Chicago, Elizabeth F. Cheney and Agnes Allerton Textile Galleries, An International Collection of Appliquéd, Embroidered and Pieced Bedcoverings, Feb. 28–May 28, 2001.

Literature

Thomas K. Woddard and Blanche Greenstein, Twentieth Century Quilts: 1900–1950 (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1988), 116, fig. 168 (ill.).
Mary Clare Clark, Story Quilts and How to Make Them (London: Museum Quilts, 1995).
Robert Shaw, Quilts, A Living Tradition (New York: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1995), 85.
Shelly Zegart, American Quilt Collections: Antique Quilt Masterpieces (Tokyo: Nihon Vogue, Ltd., 1997).
"Messages & Memories: Antique Quilts from the Shelly Zegart Collection" American Quilter, vol. XIV, no. 2 (Summer 1998).
Mary Leman Austin, ed., The Twentieth Century's Best American Quilts: Celebrating 100 Years of the Art of Quiltmaking (Golden, CO: Primedia Special Interest Publications, 1999), 85 (ill.).
Judith A. Barter, Window on the West: Chicago and the Art of the New Frontier 1890–1940, exh. cat. (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago; New York and Manchester, VT: Hudson Hills Press, 2003), 74, fig. 37.
Jonathan Holstein and Celia Y. Oliver, American Quilt Collections, Antique Quilt Masterpieces.

Comparables