Textile Time Traveling on a Trip to Gettysburg

A quest for reproduction fabric reveals more than expected

Reproduction quilting cottons at The Sew’n Place. Photo by author.

On the hunt, I follow up on a tip from a quilter I know. Gettysburg. Yes, Gettysburg is the spot. Of course. It all makes sense. What better place to find fabric designed for time travelers, cloth which replicates the material and patterns of the past?

Though less than eight thousand souls now call it home, Gettysburg has an outsized place in the American conscience. Over three days in July 1863, the Union and Confederate armies clashed in and around the town. Horses reared and neighed, sabers clashed, and people died — including one young woman killed by a stray bullet as she made bread. Not only the largest battle of the American Civil War, it was the largest battle ever fought in North America. Today, over nine square miles of the main battlefield are preserved as the Gettysburg National Military Park.

1913 Union and Confederate veterans at reunion to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. Library of Congress.

Americans began to visit the battle site as soon as the dust settled. They came and still come, as if by standing on the rolling hills they can put the horrific battle in context, lay it to rest, grapple successfully to make sense of it. Two days after the fighting ceased, Alexander…