Stars and Stripes: Patriotic Themes in American Folk Art

American crafts and textiles expert Harding (Home Sweet Home) combed through museums, auction house, libraries and private collections to compile this impressive catalogue of folk art and objects featuring the signs and symbols of a nascent democracy. The images the artisans chose-the bald eagle, the white pine, Lady Liberty and, over and over again, the flag in all its incarnations-appear on decorations and household objects from quilts to storage boxes to weather vanes. They are ""personalized expressions of a collective consciousness,"" proof that the values of a new nation were shared by its widely scattered citizens. For Americana buffs, Harding's volume is a treasure trove of information: for each of the 200 color photographs, she offers a historian's description of the subject. Wooden liberty caps, for instance, were often mounted on poles and carried in parades, just as they had been in the French Revolution. Harding also gives thumbnail biographies of famous carvers and brief histories of, for example, the U.S. seal and the folk art of firehouses. When confronted with all these examples of allegorical needlework, Hawaiian flag quilts, boldly stenciled stoneware and banner-emblazoned fire buckets, even readers who lack real patriotic enthusiasm will be moved to admit that we don't make 'em like we used to.