Quilt
- Description
- Handmade memorial quilt given to the family of William Macko. The quilt is made with red, white, and blue patriotic-themed fabric with 12 quilt squares, each with an image in the center featuring an interest of Macko's, such as cooking or boating, or some sort of text, like a poem. The patch in the center of the quilt features the United States Marine Corps emblem. In the lower right corner is the "Freedom Quilts" tag with printed text that reads: "Freedom Quilts | Made With Love To Comfort You | Betty Nielsen."
- Historical Notes
- William Macko lived in Bayonne, New Jersey. He and his wife, Carol, had four children. William was a former U.S. Marine and enjoyed fishing and cooking. He worked for the Port Authority as an assistant chief mechanical supervisor for the World Trade Center. On February 26, 1993, William was on his lunch break in the complex’s basement when a bomb exploded in the nearby parking garage. He was 57 years old.
Curator's Comment
A resident of Fonda, Iowa, Betty Nielsen, conceived and founded the Freedom Quilt project in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The project committed to sending a comforting handmade quilt to every family that had lost a loved one as a result of the terrorist acts. In the years that followed, Nielsen and her circle of friends and quilters remained steadfast in their determination to satisfy that goal and expanded their commitment to accommodate the diversity and number of families who would receive quilts: their quilt-making criteria further expanded to include the families of members of the American military who were killed in the line of duty after 9/11.
- Accession Number: C.2024.1.1
- Dimensions: 74.812 in X 59.25 in
- Dimensions (Metric): 190.02248 cm X 150.495 cm
- Source: Michael Macko
- Credit Line: Gift of the Macko family on behalf of William and Carol Macko
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