Jenna Bertschi (Spruill Arts Staff) | March 26, 2026
Georgia quiltmaker Harriet Powers is featured in the Smithsonian, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and, now, on your letters and packages. That’s right – as of this past February, Harriet Powers’ work now graces four new United States Postal Service stamps, putting her in the company of other famous Georgians such as Bobby Jones, Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Robinson, and more.
Powers was born into slavery in 1837 outside Athens, Georgia, and she and her husband became landowners after the Civil War. She is considered a foundational figure of African American and narrative quiltmaking, even though only two of her quilts are known today. Unlike most pattern-based quilts of the time, Powers’ quilts focused on storytelling, utilizing mostly human and animal figures to convey Biblical stories or local events.
The first of her known quilts, Bible Quilt, currently resides in the collection of the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History. Roughly 6 by 7 feet in size, the quilt features 11 blocks depicting different scenes or people from the Bible, including Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Christ’s baptism by John the Baptist, and the Last Supper. Powers displayed it at an Athens cotton fair in 1886, where it caught the attention of local art teacher Jeannie Smith. Though Powers initially declined Jeannie’s offer to purchase the quilt, she agreed to sell five years later during a difficult financial period. Before handing over her quilt, Powers explained each block in detail to Smith, who recorded her descriptions.
"Bible Quilt" by Harriet Powers. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
Powers’ second known quilt, Pictorial Quilt, was born of the first. Jeannie Smith reportedly displayed Powers’ Bible Quilt at an Atlanta cotton exposition in 1895, where it was seen by a group of wives of Atlanta University faculty members. Impressed by Powers’ work, they commissioned a new quilt from Powers as a gift for the chairman of the university’s board of trustees, Charles Cuthbert Hall.
Pictorial Quilt, currently in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, contains 15 blocks depicting Bible scenes as well as local events and stories. One such story references what has been identified as the Leonid meteor shower of 1833, based on Powers’ description: “The falling of the stars on Nov. 13, 1833. The people were frightened and thought that the end had come. God’s hand staid the stars. The varmints rushed out of their beds.”
"Pictorial Quilt" by Harriet Powers. Image courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
This meteor shower, as well as other scenes from the Pictorial Quilt, are included in the new USPS stamp series honoring Powers, which was officially released on February 28. You can learn more about Powers and the ideas behind her stamp series on the USPS website.
USPS postage stamps honoring Harriet Powers. Image credit: United States Postal Service
