Northern Indiana Amish Quilts From the Rebecca Haarer Collection

The Good Library Gallery will host an exhibit of Amish quilts, collected and documented by Rebecca Haarer ’75, from now until Oct. 8, 2026. The exhibit is sponsored by the Mennonite-Amish Exhibit Committee.

The Gallery will hold a public reception at 2 p.m. on March 15 to celebrate the exhibit’s opening.

Soon after Rebecca Haarer graduated from Goshen College with an Art major, she began collecting antique Amish quilts from the Shipshewana/LaGrange area. 1975 was early in the developing national admiration of Amish quilts, which had begun in 1971 with an exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC.

A native of Shipshewana, and daughter of Paul and Shirley Haarer, who had a well established antiques business in the area, their affinity with the Amish community led many Amish to bringing quilts to them for sale. The result is her large collection of quilts, as well as other domestic arts, usually well documented by family members who offered names, dates, places made, and stories of their backgrounds. These quilts have not been publiclly exhibited since 1995.

Collections of Amish quilts are owned by major museums throughout the U.S. In 2024 the Smithsonian American Art Museum acquired and exhibited 50 Amish quilts, to great acclaim.

Haarer has become well known in Indiana and the Midwest as a consultant and interpreter of quilts, in general, and Amish quilts in particular. Some of her insights will be found in writings on the registration table, as well as additional comments on some quilts.