The exhibition features biographies and photographs of 13 courageous women of the 1860s including Rose Greenhow, a spy for the Confederate army, and Sarah Emma Edmonds who spied for the Union army disguised as a man. Mary Todd Lincoln is represented along with her personal seamstress, Elizabeth Keckley, who had been a slave, then purchased her freedom and followed Mrs. Lincoln to the White House. Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman, both born into slavery, spoke for women’s and slave rights. Sarah Josepha Buell Hale, the founder of Godey’s Ladies’ Book magazine which influenced fashion and cooking at the time, as well as women in the medical profession like Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross, are all portrayed. These women were many things – some highly educated, others self-educated, most outspoken and none boring. An additional feature will be a replica quilt like those made by the U. S. Sanitary Commission for soldiers serving during the Civil War. The U.S. Sanitary Commission supplied the soldiers with many daily necessities including more than 250,000 quilts. This replica quilt is being supplied by the Home of the Brave Quilt Project, a national grassroots project to honor the service and memory of men and women who have died while on active duty in Afghanistan or Iraq. Try your hand at rolling a bandage, see a lock of Mary Todd Lincoln’s hair and find out what a passementerie is.

La Quinta Museum
77885 Avenida Montezuma, La Quinta, CA 92247