Quilt expert Janneken Smucker (GC '98) will speak on the Amish and Mennonite quilts featured in the current Good Library Gallery exhibit: A Cabinet of Curiosities 3. The public is invited to this free program.

Professor of History at West Chester University near Philadelphia, Smucker is best known for her definitive book, "Amish Quilts: Crafting an American Icon," published by Johns Hopkins University. Her new book, "A New Deal for Quilts," exploring the federal government's use of quilts and quiltmaking as part of the New Deal, its relief programs during the Great Depression, will be released in October at the Internationial Quilt Museum of the University of Nebraska. Smucker will be guest curator for an IQM exhibit of the same title.

She is currently serving as a consultant for the Smithsonian American Art Museum, working with its recent acquisition of the Faith and Stephen Brown collection of Amish quilts. For the Smithsonian's exhibit of these quilts opening in March 2024, "Patterns and Paradox: The Quilts of Amish Women, Smucker has composed the labels and written the catalog.