Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Jill Hemming Collection #20371, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from Jill Hemming on 19 July 1996 (Acc. 20371).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Bladen County (N.C.)--History.
• Columbus County (N.C.)--History.
• Folk artists--North Carolina.
• Handicrafts--North Carolina.
• Hemming, Jill.
• Indian quilts--North Carolina.
• Quilting--North Carolina.
• Quilts--North Carolina.
• Waccamaw Indians--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Waccamaw Indians--North Carolina.

• Waccamaw Siouan Quilters: Piecing the Past and Future in the Southern Folklife Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Hemming, Jill, "The Craft of Identity: Quilting Traditions in the Waccamaw-Siouan Tribe" [Master's Thesis] in the North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Jill Hemming received her M.A. in Folklore from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During her studies, she received a Documentation Project Grant from the Folklife Section of the North Carolina Arts Council to document and photograph quilts crafted by women of the Waccamaw Siouan Tribe of North Carolina in Columbus and Bladen counties, N.C., in part to remedy the oversight of the North Carolina Quilt Project Documentation, 1986-1988, which included few Native American quilt makers. She used this documentation in her M.A. thesis, "The Craft of Identity: Quilting Traditions in the Waccamaw-Siouan Tribe"; a booklet produced with and for the community, Waccamaw Siouan Quilters: Piecing the Past and Future; the successful nomination of quilt maker Elizabeth "Lee" Jacobs for a 1996 North Carolina Folk Heritage Award; and Traditional Threads, an annual American Indian Quilt Show initially organized by Brenda Moore, one of the quilt makers Hemming documented, and sponsored by the United Tribes of North Carolina.

Since receiving her M.A., Hemming has continued to work as a public folklorist. She has researched Mormon genealogy quilts; documented North Carolina fishermen; conducted oral histories about the impact of Latino migration into historically African-American neighborhoods in northeast central Durham, N.C., and the experiences of Lumbee breast cancer survivors; and worked as a consultant with Student Action with Farmworkers to train summer interns in fieldwork projects.

Materials document the Waccamaw Siouan Tribe of North Carolina, which has a long tradition of women creating quilts for household and community use. With a Documentation Project Grant from the Folklife Section of the North Carolina Arts Council, Jill Hemming conducted a quilt survey of Waccamaw Siouan quilts in the Columbus County, N.C., and Bladen County, N.C., communities of Bolton, N.C.; Lake Waccamaw, N.C.; Columbus, N.C.; Buckhead, N.C.; Riegelwood, N.C.; and Clinton, N.C., 1994-1995. Each quilt is documented on a form adapted from the North Carolina Quilt Project Documentation with corresponding visual representation in color slides. As far as possible, each quilt is identified by quilt owner; the quilt maker; the quilt maker's spouse, children, and parents; the quilter (if different than the quilt maker); and the materials, dimensions, and pattern of the quilt. The quilts of Elizabeth Graham Jacobs (Lee) are particularly well represented. Other quilt makers include: Rhoda M. Young, Mary Eliza Moore Patrick, Carrie Lee Spaulding Young, Shirley Jacobs Freeman, Maggie Graham Wells, Florence Jacobs, Marie Brewington Jacobs, Sue Jacobs, Brenda Jacobs Moore, Zadie Young Jacobs, Sudie Jane Stricklen Brewington, Juanita Freeman Jacobs, Donna Freeman, Margaret Patrick Gasman, Lela Mae Jacobs Brewington, Kaye Moore Jacobs, Rhoda Marcelle Young, Margie Faye Brewington Jacobs, Bessie Epps Brewington, and Marthy Jacobs. The oldest quilt documented was made around 1919. The rest range from the 1940s to the 1990s. The collection also includes some slides of the quilters and the general Buckhead community.