By: Michelle Jones, Follow South Jersey Corresponding Writer
Editor’s Note: As part of the commemoration of Salem City’s 350th Anniversary, Follow South Jersey and the Follow Salem Podcast will offer 350 stories about the past, present, and future of Salem throughout 2025. We’d love to hear your story. Please contact Dean Johnson, Editor-in-Chief of Follow South Jersey, at dean@hopeloft.com.
SALEM, N.J. – Salem City is home to a unique piece of American History, one that could be found nowhere else, possibly, in the world. It is original and unique and cannot be recreated.
In the Salem County Historical Society Museum there is housed the Lafayette Quilt created by Arabella S. Chattin. The design and construction of a crazy quilt was popular in the late 1800s. It was designed to be an embellishment for a wealthy home. It was estimated that a quilt of this design could take up to 1500 hours. Often, due to the Asian influence on the country at that time many crazy quilts had silk fabrics, velvet, cotton and wool as well as Asian inspired designs with intricate embroidery and embedded artifacts.
What makes Arabella S. Chattin’s quilt so unique is the historical nature of the piece. Arabella was considered a high end seamstress in Salem and a collector of fabrics with historical meaning. Perhaps she wanted to preserve history, or maybe she wanted to put on display her connection to important people. No one knows for sure why she built it, but there is no doubt of its significance.
The Lafayette Quilt, named after General Lafayette, contains literal pieces of American history. The quilt contains a piece of sash from the famous Revolutionary War general obtained as he passed through Wilmington, Delaware. Also, there is a piece of the vest that Abraham Lincoln supposedly wore on the night of his assassination. There is also a piece of the altar cloth from George Washington’s church, a piece of mummy wrapping, and even a coin from the Ming Dynasty, to name a few.
Arabella seemed to understand the significance of what she was creating as she kept a detailed list of what elements made up each diamond of her quilt. As a notable seamstress living through the start of this country, she apparently had ties to important figures, or at the very least was respected enough to be entrusted with these treasures by others.
Made up of 89 squares, or in this case diamonds, this quilt is loaded with meaning and reverence toward the very foundations of our nation. The quilt was finished in 1889 when Arabella was 66 years old.
The quilt display will be up until the end of March, 2025.
The Salem County Historical Society Museum is located at 83 Market Street in Salem and is open Tuesday through Saturday, 12 – 4 p.m.
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