We all understand that quilts can keep us warm and comfort us during times of sickness and stress, but did you know that quilts can also play an important role in times of conflict? Beginning June 30, and continuing through November 25, the American Textile History Museum in Lowell, MA, will present Homefront & Battlefield: Quilts & Context in the Civil War. This moving exhibit showcases quilts, clothing, and other textiles and artifacts to connect deeply moving and insightful personal stories (private memory) about the Civil War, its causes, and its aftermath, with the broader national context (public history).

"Textiles were integral to the Civil War—physically, economically, ideologically, and emotionally—and linked soldiers and civilians. The exhibition and book build on recent scholarship in social and economic history to tell of the events that led to the war, the stories of men and women affected by the Civil War, and the opportunities and challenges that followed it."