Helen, Ethel & The Crazy Quilt Featured
in Free Events at the Maine State Museum
Friday, March 28th from 9-3; Saturday, the 29th from 11-3 and Sunday the 30th from 1-4.
Admission is free to the public
For more information, check out the Maine State Museum website at:
http://www.maine.gov/museum/comingevents/CrazyQuilt.htm
Over a hundred years ago, Ethel Orr, a ten-year-old girl from Bailey Island, Maine, wrote a letter to ten-year-old Helen Keller. Ethel requested an autograph for a quilt her mother was stitching. The rest of the story, along with the first-time exhibit of the quilt and the letters from Helen Keller, is featured during a three-day special event at the Maine State Museum in Augusta, March 28 through March 30, 2008.
Orr family descendants donated Helen Keller’s letters and the extraordinary quilt made by Ethel’s mother, Mary Louise, to the museum in 2000. A few years later, the granddaughter of Ethel Orr, Nancy Orr Johnson Jensen, wrote a children’s book about the quilt and her grandmother’s pen pal friendship with Helen Keller. Mrs. Jensen visits the museum on Friday, March 28 and Saturday, March 29 to read from her book, Helen, Ethel & The Crazy Quilt and to participate in a book signing and other special activities. Museum admission and activities are free and open to all March 28 through March 30.
Nancy Orr Johnson Jensen kicks off the special event with a reading and book signing at 10:00 a.m on Friday March 28. She reads again at 1:00 p.m and repeats the sequence on Saturday March 29
at 11:00 a.m and 2:00 p.m. On Saturday afternoon at 1:30 p.m, Danny D. Smith, chairman of special collections at the Gardiner Library, presents an illustrated talk about Helen Keller's visits to Gardiner, Maine. Ongoing family art and educational activities on Friday and Saturday include: Paper Crazy Quilt Making, Try Your Hand at Embroidery Stitching, and Write A Letter the Way Helen Did.
Throughout the weekend, the exceptional crazy quilt beautifully stitched and hand-painted in 1890 by Mary Louise Orr will be exhibited at full size. The original and copies of Helen Keller’s letters sent to Ethel Orr will also be shown. The letters demonstrate the squared alphabet technique used by Helen Keller to conquer the challenges of communicating with pencil and paper.
The Maine State Museum presents Helen, Ethel & The Crazy Quilt to celebrate the Orr family of Bailey Island, their generous gift to the Maine State Museum, and the work of author Nancy Orr Johnson Jensen. The event also honors one of America's most beloved and inspiring women, Helen Keller, and her connections to Maine.
