English, Welsh, and Irish influences on the development of the block-style quilt in the United States

Shortly after his 1971 seminal exhibition of quilts at the Whitney Museum, Jonathan Holstein put forth the idea that the block-style quilt is a uniquely American innovation. Today, many leading quilt scholars have also identified the block-style quilt layout as an American adaptation, but the history of the form remains understudied. This dissertation seeks to establish the roots of the American block-style quilt in English, Welsh, and Irish quilting traditions. It also identifies some of the historical and social factors that influenced the change to the block-style form from the layouts brought to the Americas from the United Kingdom.;Using quilts and coverlets from five different museum collections in the United States and the United Kingdom as primary evidence, this research first establishes timelines for stylistic changes in the quilting traditions found in both countries. In comparing these timelines, it highlights points of convergence and divergence in the quilting history of the two countries. It also identifies block-style elements in English, Welsh, and Irish patchwork that are found in the earliest American block-style quilts. Finally, it explores the possible impact of wider European quilting and patchwork traditions, the Renaissance, and Industrialization on the emergence of the block-style quilt in the United States.