NC Collection: Quilts from the May Museum

The North Carolina Collection on the third floor of Joyner Library is displaying quilts from the May Museum through the rest of the spring semester. This exhibit, “Hand Pieced Together: Quilts from the May Museum,” was curated by Jennifer Daugherty and Fred Harrison. All quilts are borrowed from the May Museum in Farmville, also in partnership with local artist and historian Roger Kammerer.

Six quilts grouped together in a case

These quilts were gathered by local historian Tabitha DeVisconti, who donated her historic house and its contents to the City of Farmville to establish the museum. Most of the quilts represent and are believed to have connections to members of the Tyson and May families.

The May Museum Quilt Collection is composed of more than 50 quilts of exquisite local craftsmanship, dating back to the 1840s. The quilts showcase the variety and talent of local women providing something beautiful for their homes. This unique family collection is a credit to Tabitha Bynum May, and her daughter, Addie G. May Dupree DeVisconti, makers of the early quilts; and her daughter, Tabitha M. DeVisconti, who preserved them. There also are donated quilts from church auctions and from other families whose history is sewn into the quilts one patch at a time, leaving a legacy of the quilting arts from past generations.

View from behind one of the encased quilts