News Release

Preserve's 15th Annual Quilt Display

Wedding ring quilt using two colors (purple and white) of the Women's Suffrage Movement

NPS

News Release Date: August 27, 2020 Strong City, Kansas – Come see the 15^th annual quilt display at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve over the Labor Day weekend, September 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th.  This year’s “virtual display” will feature quilts from the past in a photographic exhibit in the barn. Two fabric quilts will be displayed; the preserve’s quilt celebrating the National Park Service’s 100^th anniversary and the preserve’s 20^th birthday, along with the local student quilt from 2010. The two fabric quilts and the virtual quilt exhibit will be located in the historic barn from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. all three days.

The year 1920 was a milestone for women as a 72-year struggle came to fruition by the ratification of the 19^th Amendment to the Constitution, giving women the right to vote. Some states had already granted this right to women, such as in Kansas in 1912.

This year’s quilt exhibit will champion this monumental event by featuring former quilts from years past that use the three colors of the suffrage movement, purple, gold, and white along with Kansas’ state flower, the sunflower. In 1867 suffragists in Kansas adopted the sunflower, the state flower, as a symbol of their campaign. From then on, gold became associated with the national women’s suffrage movement. It was described by members of the National Woman’s Party as “the color of light and life, is as the torch that guides our purpose, pure and unswerving.”


Purple came to America as a suffrage color via England, where it represented “the instinct of freedom and dignity.” The National Woman’s Party described the meaning of purple in their purple, white, and gold flag as symbolizing “the color of loyalty, constancy to purpose, unswerving steadfastness to a cause.” To learn more about the 19^th Amendment, visit https://www.nps.gov/subjects/womenshistory/19th-amendment.htm and follow the links.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve invites you to discover the meaning of national parks and how your park inspires you – both in personal connections and memorable experiences. Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is located two miles north of Strong City on Kansas State Highway 177 (the Flint Hills National Scenic Byway) and is a unique public/private partnership between the National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy. For additional information on Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, please visit www.nps.gov/tapr, email e-mail us, call the preserve at [phone], or visit the preserve’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/NPS.TallgrassPrairie. To learn more about The Nature Conservancy in Kansas, visit the Conservancy’s website at www.nature.org/Kansas or Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TNCKansas .

-NPS-