Research Publications
Since 1982 Laurel has shared her research findings through a wide range of both scholarly and popular publications. Her work is frequently cited by others, and she has extended the influence of her knowledge and experience by serving as editor and mentor for the work of other researchers.
“The Making of a Kentucky Counterpane,”( MESDA 2012 Summer Institute paper) Journal of Backcountry Studies (online journal, forthcoming)
“Bolton’s Cotton Counterpanes: Hand-Weaving in the Industrial Age,” co-authored with Erin Beeston, in Quilt Studies 14, ed. Hazel Mills (Halifax: British Quilt Study Group, forthcoming May 2013).
Mary Black’s Family Quilts: Memory and Meaning in Everyday Life (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2005).
Uncoverings, the Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group, editor, 1988—1993, 2008—2011.
“Quilt Research: Tracing our History,” in Quilts Around the World: The Story of Quilting from Alabama to Zimbabwe, by Spike Gillespie (Minneapolis: Voyageur Press, 2010), 44-47. “The V&A Symposium, June 2010: A View from Across the Pond,” Culcita: News and Views 29 (September 2010): 11—13.
“Turn-of-the-Century Quilts: Embodied Objects in a Web of Relationships,” co-authored with Beverly Gordon, in Women and the Material Culture of Needlework and Textiles, 1750-1950, ed. Maureen Daly Goggin and Beth Fowkes Tobin (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2009), 93-110.
“Simple and Complex: Allover Styles,” in American Quilts in the Modern Age, 1870—1940, ed. Marin Hanson and Patricia Crews (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009), 179-212.
“Early-Nineteenth-Century Whitework Bedcovers with Old Salem Connections,” in The Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts 32, no 2 (Winter 2006): 149-68.
“The Underground Railroad Quilt Code: The Experience of Belief,” in Uncoverings 2007, ed. Joanna Evans (Lincoln, NE: American Quilt Study Group, 2007), 207-16.
“Early Quiltmaking among the Ulster-Scots in the Southern United States,” in Quilt Studies 8 (Halifax: British Quilt Study Group, 2007): 65-82.
“Mary Black’s “Save All” Quilt,” in Blanket Statements 82 (Fall 2005): 1-4.
“Mary Black’s Family Quilts: Changing Styles, Status, and Fabric Availability,” in Uncoverings 2004, ed. Kathlyn Sullivan (Lincoln, NE: American Quilt Study Group, 2004), 79-108.
“Deciphering Folk Costume: Dress Codes Among Contra Dancers,” co-authored with Paul Jordan-Smith, Journal of American Folklore 117, no. 466 (Fall 2004): 415-40.
“Quilts and Cultural Values: Gender, Race, and Social Class,” in Quilt Studies 6 (Halifax: British Quilt Study Group, 2004), 7-27.
“Mosaic Patchwork: A Personal Experience Narrative,” in Blanket Statements: the Newsletter of the American Quilt Study Group, 71 (Winter 2003), 9-12.
“An Elegant Geometry: Tradition, Migration, and Variation,” in Mosaic Quilts: Paper Template Piecing in the South Carolina Lowcountry (Greenville, SC: Curious Works Press and The Charleston Museum, 2002), 10-21.
“Material Expressions of Communality Among Dance Groups,” in “Communities of Practice: Traditional Music and Dance” special issue, ed. Paul Jordan-Smith and Laurel Horton, Western Folklore 60, 2-3 (Spring/Summer 2001): 203-26.
“The Quilts of the Chattahoochee Country Dancers,” in Uncoverings 2001 (Lincoln, NE: American Quilt Study Group, 2001), 117-39.
“An Old-Fashioned Quilting in 1910,” in Uncoverings 2000 (Lincoln, NE: American Quilt Study Group, 2000), 1-25.
Quilts: Threads of Our Heritage. Gallery guide to private collection. (Spartanburg, SC: Mary Black Foundation, 1999).
“Blue Ridge Quiltmaking in the Late Twentieth Century,” and “‘If Quilts Could Talk’: Voices from the Late-Twentieth Century,” Folklife Center News 21, no.3 (Summer 1999), 3-12.
“Quiltmaking in Ireland and America,” in What’s American About American Quilts? A Research Forum on Regional Characteristics (Washington: National Museum of American History, 1997), session 3:1-10.
Quiltmaking in America: Beyond the Myths (Nashville: Rutledge Hill, 1994), editor/contributor.
“Rethinking Quilt Projects: A Folklorist’s Perspective,” The Quilt Journal 1, no. 1 (1992): 10-11.
“Textile Traditions in South Carolina’s Dutch Fork,” in Bits and Pieces: Textile Traditions, ed. Jeannette Lasansky (Lewisburg, PA: Oral Traditions, 1991), 72-79.
“Economic Influences on German and Scotch-Irish Quilts in Rowan County, North Carolina,” in Arts in Earnest: North Carolina Folklife (Durham: Duke University Press, 1989).
“Quiltmaking Traditions in Georgia,” in Patterns: A Celebration of Georgia’s Quilting Traditions (Madison: Madison-Morgan Cultural Center, 1990), 12-18.
Glorified Patchwork: South Carolina Crazy Quilts, exhibition catalog (Columbia: McKissick Museum, 1989).
“In Search of the Appalachian Quilt,” Now and Then 6, no. 3 (Fall 1989): 19-21.
“Nineteenth Century Quiltmaking Traditions in South Carolina,” Southern Folklore 46, no. 2 (1989): 101-15.
“The Textile Industry and South Carolina Quilts,” Uncoverings 1988, ed. Laurel Horton (San Francisco: American Quilt Study Group, 1989), 129-50.
The Oral Interview in Quilt Research. Technical Guide #2. (San Francisco: American Quilt Study Group, 1988).
“Quilt Patterns in the Frank C. Brown Collection,” North Carolina Folklore Journal 35, no. 1 (Winter/Spring 1988): 3-13.
“Quilt Patterns in the Frank C. Brown Collection,” Uncoverings 1987, ed. Laurel Horton (San Francisco: American Quilt Study Group, 1989), 57-72.
“How I Do Research: Local History and Folklore Fieldwork,” Uncoverings 1987, ed. Laurel Horton (San Francisco: American Quilt Study Group, 1989), 164-67.
“Downhome and Uptown: A Patchwork of Carolina Textiles,” in Carolina Folk: The Cradle of a Southern Tradition. (Columbia SC: McKissick Museum, 1985), 45-53.
“Quiltmaking Traditions in South Carolina,” in Social Fabric: South Carolina’s Traditional Quilts, ed. Laurel Horton and Lynn Robertson Myers (Columbia SC: McKissick Museum, 1985), 11-33.
“South Carolina Quilts and the Civil War,” in Uncoverings 1985, ed. Sally Garoutte (Mill Valley CA: American Quilt Study Group, 1986), 53-69.
“South Carolina’s Traditional Quilts,” in Uncoverings 1984, ed. Sally Garoutte (Mill Valley CA: American Quilt Study Group, 1985), 55-69.
“Nineteenth Century Quilts in Macon County, North Carolina,” in The Many Faces of Appalachia: Exploring a Region’s Diversity, ed. Sam Gray (Boone NC: Appalachian Consortium Press, 1985), 11-22.
“Nineteenth Century Middle Class Quilts in Macon County, North Carolina,” in Uncoverings 1983, ed. Sally Garoutte (Mill Valley CA: American Quilt Study Group, 1984), 87-98.
“Nineteenth Century Middle Class Quilts in Macon County, North Carolina,” in Quilt Close-up: Five Southern Views, (Chattanooga: Hunter Museum of Art, 1983), 3-10.