Lynda Salter Chenoweth reveals the value of signature quilts as historic and social documents waiting to be read. Her research to discover the story behind an 1853 Ohio Quaker signature quilt uncovers the identity of the quilt's recipient, her life and community, and a striking feature of the quilt itself--a "hidden" design element.

New York Times bestselling author of Girl With a Pearl Earring and At the Edge of the Orchard Tracy Chevalier makes her first fictional foray into the American past in The Last Runaway, bringing to life the Underground Railroad and illuminating the principles, passions and realities that fueled this extraordinary freedom movement. Honor Bright, a modest English Quaker, moves to Ohio in 1850--only to find herself alienated and alone in a strange land. Sick from the moment she leaves England, and fleeing personal disappointment, she is forced by family tragedy to rely on strangers in a harsh, unfamiliar landscape. Nineteenth-century America is practical, precarious, and unsentimental, and scarred by the continuing injustice of slavery. In her new home Honor discovers that principles count for little, even within a religious community meant to be committed to human equality. However, Honor is drawn into the clandestine activities of the Underground Railroad, a network helping runaway slaves escape to freedom, where she befriends two surprising women who embody the remarkable power of defiance. Eventually she must decide if she too can act on what she believes in, whatever the personal costs.

CHOSEN AS ONE OF THE BEST GRAPHIC NOVELS OF 2021 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE GUARDIAN, AND THE GLOBE AND MAIL A teenage Quaker joins the Union Army and experiences firsthand the brutality of the Civil War in this singular graphic novel by a beloved comics artist and animator. During the Civil War, many Quakers were caught between their fervent support of abolition, a desire to preserve the Union, and their long-standing commitment to pacifism. When Charles Cox, a young Quaker from Indiana, slips out early one morning to enlist in the Union Army, he scandalizes his family and his community. Leaving behind the strict ways of Quaker life, Cox is soon confronted with the savagery of battle, the cruelty of the enemy (as well as of his fellow soldiers), and the overwhelming strangeness of the world beyond his home. He clings to his faith and family through letters with his sister, Fanny, who faces her own trials at home: betrayal, death, and a church that seems ready to fracture under the stress of the war. Discipline is told largely through the letters exchanged between the Cox siblings—incorporating material from actual Quaker and soldier journals of the era—and drawn in a style that combines modern graphic storytelling with the Civil War–era battlefield illustrations of the likes of Thomas Nast and Winslow Homer. The result is a powerful consideration of faith, justice, and violence, and an American comics masterpiece.

Some of the oldest and most collectible American quilts were examined in the quilt documentation project of the Maryland Association for Family and Community Education. Full color illustrations. Indexed.

Lynda Salter Chenoweth purchased a quilt in 2001 in the town of Petaluma, California. Thirty-nine names were inscribed on the quilt's blocks along with the words "Columbiana County", "Ohio", and the date 1853. Lynda spent the next several years conducting research that revealed the lives of those named on this quilt. The first result of her research was a book titled Philena's Friendship Quilt, A Quaker Farewell to Ohio released by Ohio University Press in the fall of 2009. This book concerned the quilt itself, Quaker signature quilts in general, and the life of the quilt recipient, Philena Cooper Hambleton. Neighbors and Friends: Quakers in Community shares and documents the information that Lynda collected about all of the people named on Philena's quilt, as well as members of other families who were important in the community where Philena lived. These families included the Clemsons, Coopers, Duttons, Galbreaths, Griffiths, Hambletons, Mendenhalls, Votaws, Wards, and Windles all of whom lived in Butler, Hanover, or West townships in Columbiana County, Ohio, during the 19th century. The stories of their lives, as presented here, are told within the context of early migration into Ohio, anti-slavery activism, religious upheaval within the Quaker community, the daily hardships faced by Ohio's settlers, and the Civil War.

"When Raddie's grandmother dies, her friends work together to make a friendship quilt to help comfort her and to help her remember her grandmother. Social and emotional learning concepts include friendship, empathy, grief, and teamwork. Book includes a note to caregivers and story coaching activities. A Reader's Theater version is available online so that children can benefit from dramatic interpretation."