Patchwork: Voices of 19th-Century Rural Women

NJCH is proud to sponsor this event from the Wallace House & Old Dutch Parsonage State Historic Sites.

Civil War heroine Arabella Barlow, a great-granddaughter of the Wallace family of Wallace House and Hardenbergh family of Old Dutch Parsonage, was born into the women’s world of rural New Jersey in 1824.

For Arabella Barlow’s 200th Birthday, historical musician and balladeer Linda Russell portrays twenty-one different women from ages 16 to 70 in this one-woman show at Wallace House & Old Dutch Parsonage State Historic Sites.

From words taken from actual diaries, letters and women’s magazines, their stories emerge: Bertha joyously remembers the all-night dances; Harriet mourns the death of her little girl; Lenore vents her spleen at “husbands” as she vigorously pounds her bread dough; Grandma Ickus reveals the memories stitched into her patchwork quilts. Patchwork is an exploration of the lives of rural women of the 19th Century. We hear them singing, reciting from their autograph books, offering recipes and remedies. Through Linda’s powerful performance, we feel their strength, their sense of humor and their passion for life.

Admission is free. Bring your own lawn chairs and blankets for this outdoors performance.

This program is part of a series made possible the Wallace House and Old Dutch Parsonage Association with the sponsorship of New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this series do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.