"Florida Pictorial" Quilt

Offering a complicated vision of Florida, this quilt features appliquéd and embroidered representations of local leisure activities such as golfing, as well as some of the state's leading agricultural products, including cotton and citrus. It also includes stereotypical images of African Americans, such as a tiny figure picking cotton and a boy in tattered clothing playing a banjo next to a partially eaten slice of watermelon. These representations contrast markedly with those of the white figures enjoying the beach or graduating from school, thus alluding to black and white Floridians' unequal access to opportunity. The quilt raises questions about whose memory of the state it documents and draws attention to the fact that quilts can reproduce stereotypes and other uncomfortable aspects of culture that belie the sense of comfort they typically convey.