Harriet Powers is one of America’s most famous quilters. Her two surviving quilts from the late 1800s are considered priceless treasures of American art. But there was a time—in the early 1990s—that the Smithsonian Institution flat-out underestimated the fame and adoration that American quilters held for Harriet’s quilts. They learned quickly just how far quilters would go to protect their most treasured historic quilts, and the episode that followed is a fascinating and little-known chapter in American quilt history.