Hannah Callender was a young woman whose wealthy family belonged to the Society of Friends, one of the most important groups in early Philadelphia. Just before her marriage, Callender and her two close friends and cousins, Catherine and Sarah Smith, made a quilt that would form a key piece of Callender’s trousseau—the goods she would take with her when she married and became a mistress of her own household. The quilt was a bright blue, now faded nearly white; Callender described it as “a blue Tafaty stiched bed quilt.” The central medallion depicts a pastoral scene, while elaborate vine and floral designs decorate the whole. At the top edge was stitched this attribution: “Drawn by Sarah Smith[,] stitched by Hannah Callender and Catherine Smith in Testimony of their Friendship[,] 10 mo. 5th [day,] 1761.”

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