"Mothers of Exiles": Quilt Art by Rebekka Seigel

This quilt was made in commemoration of the Statue of Liberty’s Centennial in 1986 and represented the Commonwealth of Kentucky in the Great American Quilt Festival sponsored by the Museum of American Folk Art and 3M Corporation.

The Statue of Liberty is depicted in this quilt flanked by 6 real women who led their lives in keeping with the values for which the Statue stands. From left to right, the women are: Anne Hutchinson, who as a pilgrim came to this country for religious freedom believing that women had the right to assume positions of authority in that opportunity; Betsy Ross who serves as a female symbol of the revolutionary struggle in America; Harriet Tubman for her efforts in leading numbers of her people out of slavery to freedom in the North by way of the Underground Railroad; Susan B. Anthony who struggled to secure voting rights for women in America; Emma Lazarus for her association with the Statue itself and for her efforts to bring persecuted members of the Jewish faith to freedom in America and finally, Eleanor Roosevelt for her work in the area of human rights.

I am pleased that I was able to honor the Statue of Liberty and these women in an art form that was fostered and perfected by countless women in America’s history. I have always referred to this piece as my “first feminist quilt.”