Quilts at the Custer 1881 Courthouse Museum

Custer 1881 Courthouse Museum

Crazy quilt on bed, embroidery in display case.

To continue with my "finds" during my vacation to South Dakota, I took photos of a few quilts at the Custer 1881 Courthouse Museum. It is called that because (1) it is in the middle of downtown Custer, South Dakota, (2) in 1881 it began its service as the courthouse for Custer County, and (3) it is now a museum. One of the collections for which it is known is the 1874 Custer expeditionary encampment a few miles up the road. From there, Custer and his troops explored the Black Hills region and confirmed the existence of gold. That set off the Black Hills gold rush of 1876. But, that is a blog post for a different blog. If you are interested in learning about it once it gets written, go to trailsrails.blogspot.com and sign up to receive my articles by email.

Back to the quilts. This collection was not as extensive as the one in Hot Springs, South Dakota. Still there were some beautiful examples of old quilts on display, including a wedding ring quilt top that was not completed into a finished quilt. Then again, it is possible it was still used as a light-weight coverlet on hot summer nights when a thick quilt might have been too warm.

Along with samples of my own quilting efforts, I will be posting more photos taken at the Hot Springs, SD museum. They had some wonderful examples of weaving and a great collection of antique sewing machines. 

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