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ANNIVERSARY QUILT AND 19TH CENTURY MEDICAL INSTRUMENTS
|150th Anniversary Quilt
1839 - 1989
In 1988, members of Saint Joseph's Hospital and the local community came together to plan and create a dramatic piece of art. This piece of art - a display quilt - tells the story of the nation's first industrial hospital and the second oldest hospital in Massachusetts. Chartered in 1839 to provide medical care to mill workers, the hospital was originally sponsored by eleven textile companies and was known as the Lowell Corporation Hospital.
In 1930, during the Great Depression, the hospital was deeded to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and management was transferred to the Grey Nuns of the Cross. Now a full service community hospital, Saint Joseph's continues its founders' mission of compassion and quality health care.
In the center of the quilt is the Hospital's 150th Anniversary logo, designed by Mary Lou Lowrie, which highlights the Founders' House. Initially the home of Lowell's first architect and visionary, Kirk Boott, this building served as hospital and residence from 1839 to 1964.
Surrounding the logo are red bricks, the building blocks of Lowell and the Industrial Revolution. The various patterns of fabric reflect the designs of the cotton calico, woven and printed in Lowell's textile mills.
The four adjacent triangles are dedicated to the people who carry out the hospital's mission of compassion and care. They portray the special roles of physicians, nurses, nuns, and volunteers.
The corners of the quilt honor four individuals: Dr. Gilman Kimball, pioneering surgeon and physician whose vision and compassion led the Lowell Corporation Hospital. As the Corporation Hospital's first medical superintendent, he served the community for 27 years.