Curator Gary Ross said the delicate cloth was sent to the museum at the end of July, He hoped to identify the people who made the cloth, which is comprised of individual squares sewn together.
Several initials are embroidered into the cloth, which also lists Benhar, Stirling, Clutha Valley, Tahakopa, Owaka, Warepa, and ''Balclutha Branch''.
A letter from Betty Pyatt, who sent it to the museum, said she was a Plunket nurse in Balclutha from 1946 to 1947. She stayed with a Mrs Green, and travelled to townships around South Otago.
''It was with the butcher I went to Clydevale, the banker to Owaka, and once a month by train to Tahakopa. The train stopped at three stations, allowing me to hold clinics in the station waiting rooms. The passengers didn't seem to mind,'' she wrote.
Ms Pyatt (93) was presented with the supper cloth when she left Balclutha. She then spent 25 years working in Vanuatu.
Mr Ross asked anyone with access to Plunket records, or who may know anything about the cloth, to contact the South Otago Museum.
