The comforts of home

Jan Wilson (left) and Ingrid Emerson examine one of the signature quilts that will appear in the...
Jan Wilson (left) and Ingrid Emerson examine one of the signature quilts that will appear in the exhibition later this year. Photos: Gregor Richardson

While their menfolk were overseas fighting in World War 1, women turned their hands to what needed to be done, writes Helen Baker.

Meticulously stitched with red thread, a soldier marches across a patch of quilt beside the words "It’s a long long way to Dunedin". It is one of  myriad little pictures and messages of good luck that adorn a quilt used by wounded New Zealand soldiers during World War 1.

Signature quilts formed  an important part of patriotic efforts during the war. Called "signature" or alternatively "autograph" quilts, people could pay to have their name or a design of their choice embroidered on a square of material. The squares were stitched together to form a quilt covered in an assortment of messages of love and support for soldiers overseas. Once completed, these labours of love were sent off to New Zealand military hospitals in England to put on wounded soldiers’ beds and provide them with a reminder of home.

The quilts allowed the civilian community, and particularly women, to contribute to the war effort and were a practical way of providing support to  loved ones far away overseas. The role of women in World War 1 will be brought to life later this year through the display of a number of signature quilts in Toitu Otago Settlers Museum’s exhibition, "Women’s War". The exhibition will focus on women’s contributions to the war effort and the quilts will be an important  physical reminder of just how many people were affected.

"There wouldn’t have been too many women who didn’t have a connection with somebody," says Toitu curator Sean Brosnahan.

In all likelihood, an injured soldier would have recognised names on a quilt from his home community, especially as communities at that time were much smaller and more tight-knit.

They are also an important part of the story of how society has shifted since World War 1. While many women  would have aspired to  a more active role during  the period, they  were constrained by social conventions of the time. There seem to be fewer quilts from the World War 2 period, perhaps due to the fact that women  played a more active part in the war.

After the war, the quilts and other objects sent to overseas hospitals were dispersed. Brosnahan says hospitals must have had hundreds of quilts by the end of the war.

"They’re a nuisance when you’re clearing the hospital but 50 years later there’s hardly any of them left."

It hasn’t been until recently that many of the quilts originating from Dunedin  finally made their way back home.

Toitu has six World War 1 quilts  and one from World War 2. Three of them can be connected to the North East Valley Women’s Patriotic Association, while one of the most recent additions to the collection was made by staff at Brown Ewing, a Dunedin department store that used to be located on Princes St. This particular quilt was returned to Dunedin in 2015 by Mrs Bessell,  of Bristol, whose father purchased it in an auction  some years ago.

All the quilts  at Toitu are white with red stitching, though there are a couple that have the addition of a little blue stitching in their central motifs. The Brown Ewing quilt is a classic example of a signature quilt from the World War 1 period. As well as a number of names  embroidered on to the quilt, there are numerous messages of support including phrases such as "God be with you" and "Never lose hear".

The central motif of the Brown Ewing quilt reflects Dunedin’s Scottish heritage, as a thistle intertwines with the message "To our boys at the front with greetings from the employees of Brown Ewings" and the well-known Scottish phrase "For auld lang syne". Other common symbols on the quilts held at Toitu are  the Union Jack, the New Zealand flag, horseshoes and British bulldogs.

The signature quilts are being examined by Ingrid Emerson and Jan Wilson, members of the Otago Embroiderers’ Guild in preparation for the upcoming exhibition. They are recording the names, inscriptions and motifs that appear on the quilts and picking up on small details of the sewing.

There’s a certain amount of detective work involved.

Ingrid Emerson points out how the tails of thread inside the quilt had "broken off as dust and dropped off to the bottom".

"It’s more likely to be a linen than a cotton to do that and stay there as a lump and not as fluff," she says.

Such details provide additional information that otherwise  might never have been uncovered. Both  women are also able to identify  different stitches.

"Different people stitch in different ways ... they just don’t look the same if they’ve been worked by different people".

While there is still work to be done to patch together some of the stories behind the quilts, Mr Brosnahan emphasises that they will be an important part of the exhibit.

"The challenge for [the exhibition] has been this materialisation, finding things that capture what women are up to when so much of it was very ephemeral and very much focused on activity rather than hard things.

"With the soldiers there’s so much; uniforms and weapons and trophies that give you a three-dimensionality to their experience. Something like this (the quilts) is a reasonably rare example of that for women."

So the importance of the quilts has not diminished  over time. During  World War 1 they were a  comfort to wounded  soldiers. Today,  as they  return home, they provide  an important physical reminder of the patriotic efforts of women during the war years.

- Helen Baker is a University of Otago humanities intern at the Otago Daily Times.

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