Join us for a unique "meet the author event" with Rachel May, assistant professor of English at Northern Michigan University, author and quilter, when she will be discussing her new book "An American Quilt: Unfolding a Story of Family and Slavery"

Following the trail left by an unfinished quilt professor May's book explores the far reach of slavery from New England to the Caribbean and how it played a key role in the growth of mercantile America. 

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After discovering a remarkable, unfinished quilt while studying object in an historic textile collection of 1830's era fabrics professor May found fragile and carefully folded papers inside it with clues from Minerva, Eliza, Jane and Juba-the enslaved women who were behind the quilt who were owned by Susan Crouch. Brilliantly revealing the often-silenced legacy and lives of urban enslaved women and their world, "An American Quilt: Unfolding a Story of Family and Slavery" offers its readers a luminous historical examination and appreciation of American crafts and their tactile connection to the past and present.  

Multiple award winning author Rachel May is appearing at the Bigelow via Zoom thanks to a collaboration with the hosting library the Newburyport Public Library. Register to receive the Zoom meeting invitation