Don’t Tell Ken Burns Quilts Are Quaint

Mrs. Bill Stagg with state quilt, Pie Town, New Mexico, Russell Lee, 1940 (LoC)

(NYTimes) This week, the International Quilt Study Center & Museum in Lincoln, Neb., will reveal a surprising side of the prolific filmmaker Ken Burns: He collects quilts. The exhibition “Uncovered: The Ken Burns Collection” will display 28 of them for the first time.

Mr. Burns has been buying American quilts since the mid-1970s, often on prowls through antique stores on the back roads of New England; before too long, dealers began coming to him. Continued