Warmth, Comfort, Style, Fashion, & Fine Art: Quilts from the Pilgrim/Roy Collection

March 13–May 31, 2026

Warmth, Comfort, Style, Fashion, & Fine Art: Quilts from the Pilgrim / Roy Collection celebrates the extraordinary quilt collection of Gerald Roy and the late Paul Pilgrim—one of the most influential private collections of American quilts in the United States. At its height, the Pilgrim/Roy Collection encompassed more than 1,500 quilts and has played a foundational role in shaping how quilts are understood, studied, and appreciated as works of art.

Pilgrim and Roy entered the field as gallery owners, antique dealers, and trained artists, approaching quilts not as craft objects but as powerful expressions of color, design, and artistic intention—made primarily by women. With little formal knowledge of quilt history or technique at the outset, they applied the same critical eye they brought to fine art, allowing color to guide their collecting. Deeply influenced by Josef Albers’ theories of color interaction, Roy famously recalled his first encounter with an Amish quilt: “What is a Josef Albers painting doing hanging on a clothesline?”

Their collecting philosophy prioritized innovation and what they described as “the mark of the maker”—evidence of creative decision-making, experimentation, and individuality. This approach led them to assemble a collection that reveals 19th-century quilt makers as bold and sophisticated artists, often anticipating the visual language of 20th-century Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting.

Pilgrim and Roy began collecting well before the quilt revival of the 1970s and ’80s and were instrumental in establishing the National Quilt Museum in Paducah. The enduring significance of their collection was recognized in the landmark exhibition Quilts and Color: Quilts from the Pilgrim/Roy Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 2014.

Presented at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts, Warmth, Comfort, Style, Fashion, & Fine Art invites viewers to experience quilts as objects of warmth and comfort—and as enduring works of style, fashion, and fine art. The exhibition features over thirty quilts from the Pilgrim/Roy Collection, which at the conclusion of the exhibition will become a permanent part of the Museum’s collection. Accompanying the exhibition is a fully illustrated exhibition catalogue with essays by Gerald Roy and Senior Curator Emily Schlemowitz.

Support for this exhibition is provided by the Antiquarian Society of Wisconsin and Judy Hearst—Coldwell Banker Realty.