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When Janneken Smucker, professor at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, was researching quilt making using the Library of Congress’s resources, she came across hoards of quilt-making photos from the early 1930s.

This seemed out of the norm to Smucker, a lifelong quilt maker and researcher.

Upon further digging, Smucker learned quilts were integral to the federal government’s New Deal strategy to mend the country’s economy and morale during the Great Depression.

This discovery started a yearslong research and curatorial process, resulting in the exhibition “A New Deal for Quil...