Hello, The East Tennessee Historical Society, headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, is exploring a mystery. Currently on display in the ETHS Museum is a handmade crazy quilt by Lillie Harvey, ca. 1915. A quilt historian has been exploring the life of Lillie Harvey, yet we still have some gaps to fill. ETHS will host a lecture on Sunday, January 19, 2003, at the East Tennessee History Center, discussing Ms. Harvey and her quilt. For additional information about the lecture and images of the quilt, you may view our web site at http://www.east-tennessee-history.org Here is what our researcher has discovered about Ms. Harvey to date: Lillie's parents were James W. Harvey and Ann (?), both born in Liverpool, England. They were married approximately 1847. The Harvey parents migrated to the United States of America in 1848 where Mr. Harvey worked as a stonecutter in New York. In 1857, the Harvey parents moved to Wisconsin. Lillie was born in 1859 in Wisconsin. During this time period Mr. Harvey was working on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. Prior to 1879, he won a large settlement from the federal government based on a lawsuit stemming from a contract he received to build a bridge across the Mississippi River at Rock Island, Illinois. The case eventually made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1879, the Harvey family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where Mr. Harvey invested in local marble quarries and real estate. The marriage of James and Ann Harvey ended in divorce in 1889. In 1890, James Harvey reopened the bitter divorce proceedings with claims he and his wife were never officially married in Liverpool. In addition to Lillie, the Harveys had a son named John who died at the age of 28. John Harvey had a wife and five children. James Harvey died in 1893 in Knoxville. Ann Harvey lived at the family home in Knoxville, "Mountain View," until her death in 1906 at the age of 85. Lillie lived at the family home until at least 1919. The 1922 city directory of Knoxville records her living at the Bowman Apartments in downtown Knoxville. The trail of Lillie Harvey ends there. There is a burial plot for Lillie at Knoxville's Old Gray Cemetery, but it is empty. If anyone has information on the life of Lillie Harvey, especially post-1922, please feel free to contact the East Tennessee Historical Society at [email protected] If you are in the Knoxville area on Sunday, January 19, 2003, please feel free to come to the lecture presented on the "Miss Lillie Harvey's Knoxville Crazy Quilt." The quilt will be on display at the ETHS Museum through March 16, 2003. For more information about the quilt lecture or exhibit, visit the ETHS web site at www.east-tennessee-history.org