Declaration of Independence Comm. Handkerchief
Friday, December 2, 2011
Not long after arriving at the museum this morning, I heard whining about email. Yes, it could be received, but it could not go out! Error messages were rampant! It's never a good thing when the entire staff is lined up at your desk with the same complaint :( When Maureen and I left yesterday, and yes, celebrated the birth of our new website, we thought all the email accounts were set and worked fine. She even tested it. But apparently it wasn't so! Yesterday I had to rescue the email of the one person in the museum who had a different email manager than everyone else. So I went back to her office and tracked down the outgoing port number I used. Then I changed the outgoing port of everyone's email manager to match. Luckily it worked. If it hadn't I am sure I would have had a BIG headache!
After that I spent some more time in the library tracking down information on some of the historical fabrics that will be in quilts in the presidents exhibit. Martha had circulating copies of two exhibition catalogs on political quilts so I got those from her.
Not long after arriving at the museum this morning, I heard whining about email. Yes, it could be received, but it could not go out! Error messages were rampant! It's never a good thing when the entire staff is lined up at your desk with the same complaint :( When Maureen and I left yesterday, and yes, celebrated the birth of our new website, we thought all the email accounts were set and worked fine. She even tested it. But apparently it wasn't so! Yesterday I had to rescue the email of the one person in the museum who had a different email manager than everyone else. So I went back to her office and tracked down the outgoing port number I used. Then I changed the outgoing port of everyone's email manager to match. Luckily it worked. If it hadn't I am sure I would have had a BIG headache!
After that I spent some more time in the library tracking down information on some of the historical fabrics that will be in quilts in the presidents exhibit. Martha had circulating copies of two exhibition catalogs on political quilts so I got those from her.
Kansas City Star pattern 1931 "Giddap"
Giddap the Very Democratic Donkey
We have a donkey quilt coming from St. Louis for the exhibit. It was made to celebrate FDR's election to a third term. In researching this donkey pattern, I found that the quilt seems to be a very similar pattern to one printed in the Kansas City Star newspaper in 1931. I emailed Merikay Waldvogel about it thinking she would have the pattern in her clipping collection. Yup, sure enough she had it and graciously sent me a scan of it. Until the quilt is received, we can't tell if it is a variation of the pattern because the donkeys are all in one color. It might be applique donkeys in the shape of the Giddap quilt block. But if it is a variation of the KC Star pattern -- oh I see some fun things to do for the exhibit. For one thing, since it is a variation we can invite our visitors to see if they can spot the differences between the pattern and the quilt. Also, I think it would be fun to offer our visitors a copy of the pattern. We must have permission of the KC Star to do that I'm sure. But it would be a fun thing to do. Maybe donkey and elephant blocks can tie into a community outreach program related to the exhibition. The Star actually printed an elephant pattern first, and it wasn't related to politics, but to an elephant at the Kansas City zoo. The public outcry for a donkey led them to publish Giddap, just a few weeks later.
We have a donkey quilt coming from St. Louis for the exhibit. It was made to celebrate FDR's election to a third term. In researching this donkey pattern, I found that the quilt seems to be a very similar pattern to one printed in the Kansas City Star newspaper in 1931. I emailed Merikay Waldvogel about it thinking she would have the pattern in her clipping collection. Yup, sure enough she had it and graciously sent me a scan of it. Until the quilt is received, we can't tell if it is a variation of the pattern because the donkeys are all in one color. It might be applique donkeys in the shape of the Giddap quilt block. But if it is a variation of the KC Star pattern -- oh I see some fun things to do for the exhibit. For one thing, since it is a variation we can invite our visitors to see if they can spot the differences between the pattern and the quilt. Also, I think it would be fun to offer our visitors a copy of the pattern. We must have permission of the KC Star to do that I'm sure. But it would be a fun thing to do. Maybe donkey and elephant blocks can tie into a community outreach program related to the exhibition. The Star actually printed an elephant pattern first, and it wasn't related to politics, but to an elephant at the Kansas City zoo. The public outcry for a donkey led them to publish Giddap, just a few weeks later.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Okay folks, seriously it's PARTY TIME! Maureen and I let it rip -- the new website is Live! You can see it at http://nequiltmuseum.org. Of course, as always, there are a couple of glitches. The favicon isn't always showing up, the logo at the top of the page shows up in Firefox and Chrome, but not Internet Explorer -- so don't look at it there. Also in I.E. the calendar isn't coming through for some reason. We had a few things to do to get the email flowing properly with the new email provider. But, all in all, things went well. Other than this, you guessed it, I worked on the labels for the President's exhibit today. I found a great book in the library called Threads of History. It's about 300+ pages long and has photos of many political commemorative fabrics, handkerchiefs, and other textiles. It's a good resource for many of our quilts in the exhibit. Tonight after work, a group of us went out for dinner and a glass of wine. This celebration was well deserved!
Okay folks, seriously it's PARTY TIME! Maureen and I let it rip -- the new website is Live! You can see it at http://nequiltmuseum.org. Of course, as always, there are a couple of glitches. The favicon isn't always showing up, the logo at the top of the page shows up in Firefox and Chrome, but not Internet Explorer -- so don't look at it there. Also in I.E. the calendar isn't coming through for some reason. We had a few things to do to get the email flowing properly with the new email provider. But, all in all, things went well. Other than this, you guessed it, I worked on the labels for the President's exhibit today. I found a great book in the library called Threads of History. It's about 300+ pages long and has photos of many political commemorative fabrics, handkerchiefs, and other textiles. It's a good resource for many of our quilts in the exhibit. Tonight after work, a group of us went out for dinner and a glass of wine. This celebration was well deserved!
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