In 1976 students in Karen Gutman Paige’s sewing class at Sidney Lanier created this wall hanging as a tribute to America. It was on display in the lobby of the old Gainesville Sun building to celebrate America’s bicentennial.
This bicentennial project is cause for celebration in itself. Not because it took so long to complete. Not because it is made of 49 separately hand-embroidered squares. But because the students at Sidney Lanier Training Center made it.
Gainesville Sun: July 4, 1976.
By sheer coincidence, my arrival at the Gainesville Sun more or less coincided with the display of a very special tribute to America in the lobby of the old downtown Sun building.
It was a big year. America was celebrating its Bicentennial birthday. I was celebrating getting a job. And just down the street, in front of the county courthouse, local patriots had dedicated a ceremonial speaker’s stand in honor of the Bill of Rights.
Forty nine years later the speaker’s stand is still here. Against all odds, so am I.
But the bicentennial wall hanging that graced The Sun’s lobby has only barely managed to survive the passage of decades.
And that’s a shame.
Because that particular bicentennial tribute was painstakingly created and assembled by the students of Karen Gutman Paige’s sewing class at what was then called the Sidney Lanier Training Center.
Paige would recall: “The students were excited about creating their pieces; they became even more excited as pieces were finished and they began to understand what the hanging would look like. They tried very hard to make neat stitches and were thrilled to see the finished project. I explained the history of each scene as the project developed.”
Steve Noll, was a young teaching intern at the county’s school for special education at the time. Noll would go on to become a history professor and author at the University of Florida.
He also became, by default, the caretaker of the school’s bicentennial wall hanging.
“With the school renovation, it got taken down and stuffed into a classroom closet, where it significantly degraded,” Noll said. “I rescued it and it sat in my closet for a while as well.”
He added, “with the upcoming 250th US birthday (in 2026) I thought it might be a great folk art celebration of that event.”
Which is why Noll donated the wall hanging to the Matheson Museum.
“They loved it but saw how fragile it was and in no condition to be displayed,” he said.
The Matheson estimated that restoring the wall hanging will cost upwards of $6,000. And the Noll family pledged $1,000 to help get the ball rolling.
The Matheson has plans to restore the piece and put it on prominent display in the community in time for the nation’s 250th birthday. But it acknowledges that “in the ensuing 50 years, the hanging has significantly degraded and has not been displayed for a long time.”
“It is in desperate need of cleaning and patching.”
Why bother?
Because this wall hanging is not just a tribute to American resilience. It is testament the hard work and creativity of Alachua County students who faced particularly difficult lifetime challenges.
“Each student sewed the design on their own embroidery square, which teachers sewed together to produce this superb celebratory artifact,” the Matheson said in a release. “The students were all intellectually disabled, and the high quality of work shows their amazing sewing skills.”
The good news is that the museum has already raised more than $4,000 toward the $6,000 goal. The museum hopes that civic-minded local residents will put this restoration project over the top in time for display during the country’s 205th birthday year.
“Some of the former students who worked on the quilt are still living in Gainesville,” Noll said. “As we get ready to observe the 250th anniversary of the US founding, the restored hanging is a great way to remember how all American citizens can participate in the celebration of our nation’s independence.”
Donations to the Matheson’s Threads Of Freedom restoration project can be made at this link: https://mathesonmuseum.networkforgood.com/projects/258244-threads-of-freedom
Ron Cunningham worked at the Gainesville Sun for 37 years, serving as higher education writer, Tallahassee bureau chief and editorial page editor.
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