Quilts Displaying History

The history of Ball Corporation in a quilt! In 1976, this is what well-known Muncie artist Barbara Moll created for Ball Corporation’s new headquarters. Her five-panel creation documented the history of the company from its founding in 1880 in Buffalo, New York to the company’s entry into aerospace to the lid shortage of 1975.

Barb’s research skills and incredible attention to detail is apparent in all of the panels. For example, the jelly jars depicted on the second panel are quilted with thread in the exact pattern of Ball’s Quilted Crystal Jelly Jars. To illustrate the quest for the moon and Ball’s involvement in research and technology, Barb included Neil Armstrong’s autograph in this scene. Armstrong’s first steps on the moon are contained in a television screen illustrating Ball’s manufacture of television monitors.

My favorite, however, is Barb’s illustration of Ball’s earliest product—the wood-jacketed tin can used for kerosene. Along with the tin can, she shows a kerosene lamp. Both are framed against what looks like a quilt, but isn’t. Instead, it’s the pattern from the floor of the office of company president, Frank C. Ball. Barb copied it from an early photo of F. C. sitting at his desk. I looked for the photo in the Heritage Collection and, lo-and-behold, it is the same pattern.

When Ball Corporation headquarters moved to Colorado in 1998, the company gave Minnetrista the contents of the corporate museum, including the quilt. Check out the quilt panels and the pattern on the floor.