Rajah Quilt
Oct. 17th, 2010 05:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithHaving been reminded today of the Rajah quilt, I thought I might share it with those who have not heard of it. It is significant because convict women, and 19th C working class women in general, left behind little tangible evidence, and less with a known provenance.
In 1816, Elizabeth Fry, concerned by the plight of women prisoners in gaol and during transportation, formed the Quaker group, the British Ladies Society for the Reformation of Female Prisoners.
One of the many improvements the Society implemented was to offer prisoners useful tasks, such as needlecraft, to keep them occupied during their incarceration. The Society donated sewing supplies, including tape, 10 yards of fabric, four balls of white cotton sewing thread, a ball each of black, red and blue thread, black wool, 24 hanks of coloured thread, a thimble, 100 needles, threads, pins, scissors and two pounds of patchwork pieces (or almost ten metres of fabric).
These provisions were carried by the 180 women prisoners on board the Rajah as it set sail from Woolwich, England on 5 April 1841, bound for Van Diemen’s Land. When the Rajah arrived in Hobart on 19 July 1841, these supplies had been turned into the inscribed patchwork, embroidered and appliquéd coverlet now known as the Rajah quilt.
It was presented to the Lieutenant-Governor’s wife, Lady Jane Franklin, as tangible evidence of the cooperative work that could be achieved under such circumstances.
It was taken back to the UK soon after, where it disappeared until the 1980s, when it was purchased by the National Gallery from whose web page the above description comes.
Larger version
In 1816, Elizabeth Fry, concerned by the plight of women prisoners in gaol and during transportation, formed the Quaker group, the British Ladies Society for the Reformation of Female Prisoners.
One of the many improvements the Society implemented was to offer prisoners useful tasks, such as needlecraft, to keep them occupied during their incarceration. The Society donated sewing supplies, including tape, 10 yards of fabric, four balls of white cotton sewing thread, a ball each of black, red and blue thread, black wool, 24 hanks of coloured thread, a thimble, 100 needles, threads, pins, scissors and two pounds of patchwork pieces (or almost ten metres of fabric).
These provisions were carried by the 180 women prisoners on board the Rajah as it set sail from Woolwich, England on 5 April 1841, bound for Van Diemen’s Land. When the Rajah arrived in Hobart on 19 July 1841, these supplies had been turned into the inscribed patchwork, embroidered and appliquéd coverlet now known as the Rajah quilt.
It was presented to the Lieutenant-Governor’s wife, Lady Jane Franklin, as tangible evidence of the cooperative work that could be achieved under such circumstances.
It was taken back to the UK soon after, where it disappeared until the 1980s, when it was purchased by the National Gallery from whose web page the above description comes.
Larger version
