About the Curator
Cuesta Benberry has researched and studied quilts for over thirty years. She is the author of Always There: The African-American Presence in American Quilts (1992, The Kentucky Quilt Project), Patchwork Pieces of Long Ago: An Anthology of Quilt Fiction (1993, Collector Books), and Piece of My Soul: Quilts by Black Arkansans (2000, University of Arkansas Press.)
Sandra Todaro
It is no accident that a large percentage of the Old State House Museum's quilt collection comes from black Arkansans who emigrated to Louisiana. When the museum began to collect quilts in earnest in the 1980's, a member of the staff happened to contact her friend Sandra Todaro, a quilt historian working for the Louisiana Quilt Project. Todaro knew many black families in Louisiana who had quilts made in Arkansas. Thanks to Ms. Todaro the Old State House Museum acquired many of the finest quilts in its collection. The museum is also indebted to her for extensive family interviews that helped document the history of the quilters.
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