ANDREW JACKSON MEDALLION QUILT, 1820s

The Politics

Andrew Jackson was the first candidate to produce commercial campaign goods, appealing to voters who had increasing sway in elections. Prior elections had depended largely on state legislatures to select the Electoral College. Jackson, embittered after losing the four-way 1824 election despite winning both the popular and electoral vote, immediately began an aggressive campaign for 1828.

Jackson’s record is mixed, his democratic reforms overshadowed by the atrocity of his removal of Native Americans from the Southeastern states, collectively known as the “Trail of Tears.”

The Quilt

Two colorways of a print with tiny portraits of Jackson between American eagles adorn this quilt. Quite a few quilts, and at least one dress, survive with this fabric in a total of three known colorways, suggesting large output.

United States
Cotton
101” x 96”
Loan courtesy of Debby Cooney