Autograph hunters stitch together quilts of time

Artist Lynn Setterington with quilt signatory Councillor James Gartside

Two quilts that span more than one hundred years of history have gone on display at Touchstones Rochdale as part of a new season of exhibitions.

Artist Lynn Setterington has used sewn signatures as a means of social engagement in her art, working in the UK, Asian and the US, and she was delighted when she discovered the historic quilt dating from 1895 in the Rochdale borough collections. She said: “I contacted Link4Life to ask if any quilts of this kind had been donated in the past for a project I was working on. I didn’t expect such a fantastic example and it has inspired the creation of a new contemporary signature quilt that is the centre piece of the exhibition.”

‘Mrs J T Worth’s Autograph Quilt’ was created for a bazaar to help raise funds for the NSPCC, individual signatories paid to add their names to the quilt raising over £27, or £1,500 today. It was donated to the Rochdale Museum in 1953 by a descendent of a Miss Emily Taylor who helped to stitch the signatory quilt.

As part of the ‘Please Sign Here’ Touchstones exhibition, work was commissioned to research the 199 signatories and 10 monograms on the impressive black and gold quilt. Among those featured are a number of prominent politicians of the day including Clement Royds, Conservative MP for Rochdale who was later knighted, George Kemp, Unionist MP for Heywood who later put forward the bill for women’s suffrage in 1910 and became Lord Rochdale in 1913, John A Bright, son of the Liberal Reformer, John Bright and James Duckworth who served as MP for Rochdale, Middleton and Stockport. Despite being born into poverty, Duckworth went on to become a self-made millionaire through his grocery business and was also knighted. Around 50 signatories remain yet to be identified and with the quilt now on display and listing the unknown contributors, local people are being invited to add to the information available.

To capture signatures for the new, contemporary quilt, Lynn Setterington ran outreach sessions over the summer, working with communities across the borough. Venues included sports centres, libraries, community centres and health centres. Embroidering their names directly onto cotton squares, 200 people came forward to take part and the final quilt was stitched together by volunteers in especially organised workshops.

Project researcher, Dr Alison Slater said: “We recorded the date and place of birth for everyone who took part in the project. In 100 years, for anyone trying to find out the stories of our quilt makers, this will make it a much easier task.”

Gallery Officer, Yvonne Hardman at Touchstones, said: “This exhibition involved all three of Touchstones arts and heritage teams with the museum, local studies and art gallery conserving and preparing the historic quilt to be hung, helping to research the backgrounds of those involved and managing and curating the exhibition and the workshops for the contemporary quilt making.

"When the exhibition closes in March both quilts will take their place in the historic collections to inform and inspire future generations.”