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Ardis Butler James, who established one of the world's largest public collections of quilts, passed away on July 7th at the age of 85. Mrs. James and her husband, Robert are responsible for starting the International Quilt Study Center & Museum at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.  They began the museum by donating nearly 1,000 quilts from their personal collection.  The Ardis and Robert James Collection of Antique and Contemporary Quilts is most noteworthy for its comprehensiveness.

“They tried to create a collection that reflected the entire gamut of quilt-making traditions,” Patricia Cox Crews, the Willa Cather professor of textiles at the university and the quilt center’s director, said on Thursday. “Some people have collected 19th-century American, others have collected only studio-art quilts, others may have collected the quilts of India and Pakistan, but theirs reflected the entire tradition.”

Ardis life was celebrated on July 16th, 2011, when she and her husband were inducted into The Quilters Hall of Fame.

The New York Times'  story can be found by clicking here. Below is a photo taken in their home in 2002.

(Credit: Chris Maynard for The New York Times)