Teaching the Solar System

We’re familiar nowadays with teachers finding creative ways to teach children, but back in 1876, education was far more formal. Nevertheless, that didn’t prevent Ellen Harding Baker, a teacher and, more surprisingly, an astronomer, from discovering a fascinating way to teach her charges about the solar system.

(source)

Baker hand stitched this gorgeous quilt in wool and silk to aid in her lectures. The project apparently took seven years to complete and shows all of the stars and planets in exquisite detail.

Ellen Harding Baker (source)

The quilt is now held at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History but demonstrates the passion that this amazing woman had not just for her students and her subject field, but for her needlework as well.

(source)

If you’d like to read more about this quilt, you can find out more information at My Modern Met.