Originally Posted by hobo2000
Apparently, this was part of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase segment of the Worlds Fair in St. Louis, MO. There are books that show about 80% of the items in the fair. If this can be documented by a museum, it would be invaluable, I would imagine the Smithsonian would be the place to start. Writ them a letter with a picture and see what happens. I had a Chinese garment that was made with the "forbidden stitch" I donated it to the Smithsonian and got a hefty tax write-off that helped us for years. Please be very careful as this is a piece of history if it can be proven and I have a feeling it will be. I will see what I can discover.
In my former life I was head of the archives at the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis and they have the records of the 1904 World's Fair (the actual company records),the library has an extensive collections of printed materials, and the museum has a large collection of objects related to the fair.
The first step would be to contact the Library Research Center and send them a photo along with the info from the back of the quilt. Ask them if they can verify that it was displayed. Now, I must warn you that many things can be verified as being displayed but there are many that cannot.
The email is
[email protected] and the website is www.missourihistory.org. Jason Stratman is the librarian that specializes in World's fair related questions (esp in 2004 for the centennial, you should've seen all the questions coming in!).