Student Heritage Quilt on Display at West Caldwell Library

A “Heritage Quilt” created by students from Essex Valley School is on display at the West Caldwell Public Library. English teacher Phyllis Lardieri worked with students on a school-wide project to create a quilt that highlighted the family histories of students.

After reading Everyday Use by Alice Walker, a short story about the passing down of family quilts, Lardieri asked each student to paste pictures representing his or her heritage on six squares of scrapbook paper. Images included food, costumes, instruments, celebrations, famous people, and landmarks from the students’ cultural backgrounds. 

The squares were joined together to create a paper quilt approximately seven feet long and four feet wide. While the students worked on the squares, they learned about different cultures, as well as explored cultural similarities and differences.

Lardieri and her students visited the West Caldwell Public Library on June 13th to see the display of their Heritage Quilt, and also explore some of the library’s resources, including books about immigration and the Ancestry.com genealogy database. This database provides access to billions of historical records for the United States and around the world, and can be accessed by all patrons at the library’s public computers.

“The West Caldwell Library is thrilled to showcase the work of the students of Essex Valley School and we hope to continue the tradition of showcasing students’ work in the library. What makes this display so important is that is reminds all of us that we all came from somewhere else…and that’s what helps unites us as a community,” Samantha McCoy, Library Director, said in a release.

The Heritage Quilt be on display throughout the summer at the West Caldwell Public Library, 30 Clinton Road, West Caldwell.