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Museum object · Textiles and Quilts

Yo-yo coverlet made for Jennie Dee Booth Moton by Tuskegee Institute students

1915-1935

Tuskegee, Macon County, Alabama, United States, North and Central America

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Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

Yo-yo coverlet made from plain muslin by female students of Tuskegee Institute for Jennie Dee Booth Moton. The yo-yos are made by gathering the edges into the middle of one side and pulling tight into pleats. Each yoyo has an empty circle in the middle of the pleated side and is plain on the back side. They are hand sewn together to form the coverlet, with open spaces between their round edges. At the vertical center the yo-yos are sewn overlapping, with two (2) columns stacked on top of each other. Ten (10) triangles made from six (6) yo-yos each are sewn along the bottom edge of the coverlet. There were likely originally twelve (12) triangles, with the bottom right corner now empty and the bottom left corner only having two (2) extra yo-yos sewn.

Sources & collection details

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture — original record ↗

Source collection ↗

Catalog metadata · CC0 · Source checked 2026-10-13

Catalog reference: 2009.15ab

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