The Alliance for American Quilts embarked in 1996 on a program to promote awareness of the value of quilt ephemera. Through "Boxes Under the Bed™" workshops, persons interested in recording information about the history of quilting in America learned methods for documenting "quilt paper" and for recording oral histories with the owners. This website's information is designed to reach a much wider audience. With the heightened interest in quilt history and quilt documentation at the end of the 20th century, our understanding of the development of quilting history in America is clearer than it was 30 years ago. Much of that information has come from collectors and quiltmakers who have studied a wide range of quilt ephemera. Their published books, articles, and indexes are readily available in bookstores and libraries. However, many aspects of quilting remain under-studied. Information about some of these can be found in the bits and pieces of "quilt ephemera" that thoughtful quiltmakers have hidden away for safekeeping.

“Quilt ephemera,” also known as “quilt stuff” or “quilt paper,” is often found tucked in a dark closet or in a box under the bed. To the quiltmakers, it was just too good to throw away. To quilt historians, these resources taken together form an important archive for:

• Pattern identification and dating
• Quilt pattern designers and companies
• Prizewinning quilts and quiltmakers
• Quilt kit identification
• Activities of quilting groups

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  	Merikay Waldvogel on Boxes Under the Bed™ My name is Merikay Waldvogel, a quilt historian living in Knoxville, Tennessee. After writing about 1930s quilts in Soft Covers for Hard Times (1990), I became an advocate for saving quilt paper from the 20th century. Information about women, the 1930s, and quilts is NOT easy to find in public and academic libraries. When I interviewed women in their 80's who had quilted, I examined their quilts and eventually, they would show me their boxes containing cardboard templates, pencil drawings of quilt blocks, quilt pattern pamphlets, photos, and correspondence pertaining to their quilts. I was amazed at the kind of quilt information these boxes held. Historians would call these "primary sources." I felt like an archeologist coming upon pieces of a larger story, and like an archeologist I knew I would not ever find all the pieces. The items saved depend on the quiltmaker's age, interests, and hometown. For example, a "tradtional" quiltmaker in Tennessee would more likely have collected Laura Wheeler quilt column clippings while a quiltmaker in Kansas or Oklahoma would have clippings from the Kansas City Star. Both pattern lines appeared as early as the 1930s. It is important to remember that a 20-year-old woman quilting in 1932 would be 82 years old in 2000. Most of these quiltmakers have passed away and their collections have been handed down or sold in estate sales.
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  Read about the types of items that can be found in Boxes Under the Bed™