According to Varina Howell Davis, this quilt was made for Jefferson Davis “during the stormiest part of our War for State rights and liberty. Every piece was made by a different person, and the embroidery was made with little odd pieces of sewing silk which could be found left over our years of ease and plenty. Mr. Davis valued it so much that once when he was sleeping under it, he recognized the fact and asked to have it taken off, ‘put away with lavender,’ an old fashioned manner of saying ‘with great care.’”
The mission of The American Civil War Museum is to be the preeminent center for the exploration of the American Civil War and its legacies from multiple perspectives: Union and Confederate, enslaved and free African Americans, soldiers and civilians.