The Great Depression wasn’t something we talked much about in my family. I do know it’s what made my grandfather quit school in the eighth grade to go work in his father’s grocery store. When we think of this time in international history, which lasted roughly from the Stock Market crash in 1929 until the lead-up to World War 2, we often think of the photographs of Dorothea Lange and the New Deal which funded large public works proejcts like the TVA and Hoover Dam.

But quilt historian Janneken Smucker has uncovered a softer side the New Deal, one that until now, has received scant attention: the role of quilts as a of domestic stream of income.

In this conversation, Janneken and I explore:
① how the New Deal may have changed quilting for a generation
② how quilts can be containers of hope and resilience
③ how quilts were used as American propaganda

I hope you enjoy HOW TO SOFTEN HARD TIMES with my good friend, Janneken Smucker

HELPFUL RESOURCES
⤷ New Deal for Quilts by Janneken Smucker
⤷ International Quilt Museum exhibit website
⤷ Farm Security Administration Photo Archives
⤷ Soft Covers for Hard Times by Merikay Waldvogel
⤷ Always There: The African-American Presence in American Quilts by Cuesta Benberry

SEAMSIDE host Zak foster co-explores the inner work of textiles with various textile artists. In each episode, we seek to understand how working with cloth makes us more human.

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