Webster, Marie D. (Marie Daugherty), 1859-1956

Marie Webster was born to Josiah and Minerva Daugherty on July 19, 1859 in Wabash, Indiana. She married George Webster Jr. in 1884, after which she lived in Marion, Indiana. The couple had one child, a son, Lawrence Webster.
Marie Webster did not begin her quilting career until the early Twentieth Century, when the Websters relocated to a new house and Marie undertook its decoration. Dissatisfied with the quilting patterns available to her, Webster decided to create a pattern of her own, adapting a traditional Rose of Sharon pattern and applying a pastel color scheme that was made popular by the Arts and Crafts Movement. The first quilt, completed around 1909, Webster first titled “Pink Rose,” and later changed its name to “American Beauty Rose.”
After submitting her quilt design to the Ladies’ Home Journal and receiving positive feedback, Webster was invited to contribute a full page of quilt designs to the publication, which appeared in the January 1911 edition. The inclusion of Webster’s design in this publication is particularly notable for the fact that the designs were printed in color. Webster’s designs for full size quilts, baby quilts, and cushions appeared in three subsequent issues of Ladies’ Home Journal: August 1911, January 1912, and August 1912. As a result of these features, Marie Webster became a household name in quilting circles, and she began producing and selling patterns for her quilts, with the help of her sister Emma Daugherty. These patterns were also unique for the time, containing a blueprint and a tissue paper placement guide. At the height of her designing career, Webster had 22 different patterns available.
Webster’s interest in quilting extended far beyond the creation of her distinctive patterns. Webster conducted exhaustive research into the history of the craft, and authored the first book on the subject, Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them, in 1915. The publication led Webster to give many lectures, and she was often consulted as an expert on the subject. During this time, Webster’s quilts were exhibited in a variety of venues.
In the 1920s Marie Webster started a new business with two friends, Evangeline Beshore and Ida Hess, to compliment her successful pattern-selling business with her sister. Webster and her friends formed the Practical Patchwork Company, which produced illustrated catalogs and sold quilt-making kits and completed quilts. During this time, Webster created nine new quilt patterns.
The Practical Patchwork Company continued to operate through the 1930s, though Webster scaled down her involvement due to her husband’s poor health. In 1942, Webster moved to New Jersey to live with her son and his family. The Company continued on in Marion for a few years under the direction of Beshore and Hess. Marie Webster died in 1956 at the age of 97.