Dec 10, 2024
In the autumn of 1883, a paper in the nation's capital reported that "an Iowa woman has spent 7 years embroidering the solar system on a quilt" — to teach astronomy in an era when women could not attend college. Her story.
Her name is Ellen Harding Baker, and she taught science in rural Iowa during an era when most institutions of higher education were still closed to women (while also raising five children).
She used her Solar System quilt to illustrate her astronomy lectures. To ensure the accuracy of her embroidered depiction, Baker traveled to the Chicago Observatory to view sunspots and the Great Comet of 1882.
@quiltsinfilm not your usual fare, but I thought you might like it
