As someone who has spent quite a bit of time researching (and, I hope, debunking) the "quilt code," it is VERY heartening to read the comments here. I think one of you observed that those who substitute fiction for historical fact do the world a great disservice. I'd add that such a disservice is even worse when the subject of this ostensibly benevolent fiction is a group struggling to accurately document its history. And it is a real battle to re-educate people once a story has become part of pop culture.

It is particularly frustrating when government agencies (who apparently presume that the subject is too "delicate" to examine with a critical eye) end up unblinkingly giving either grants or publicity to some of these folks. For example:

One of the chief "code" proponents applied to have her business included in the National Parks Service "Network to Freedom" program. The regional coordinator told me recently that "after lengthy debates," the application had been denied. She did *not* tell me that another application, for the same business (this time in teh daughter's name) was *accepted*. Recently the same family obtained her assistance in applying for a Department of Education grant to purchase an 18-wheel tractor trailer as a traveling museum.

While this NPS administrator asserts that the NPS is neutral on the subject, their own website (www.cr.nps.gov/ugrr/learn_b5.htm) shows otherwise - detailing at length its own version of the "code", and not even mentioning that serious historians of all disciplines have found no evidence of a "code" or that proponents' claims directly contradict what we *do* know about the URR.

This month the US Forest Service paid to have 7,000 "quilt code" posters printed and distributed to USFS offices nationwide. (One wonders what quilts have to do with the Forest Service.)

So....just when I feel as though the battle for historical fact has been abandoned in favor of "a good story" (as if "good stories" about the URR had to be manufactured!) I learn of your discussion, or get an encouraging email from George Nagle (www.afrolumens.org) or be told by Karen James of the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission that she's spreading the good, factual word. Many thanks.

I'd be honored if my own research is of any help, and welcome any queries; it's a work in progress, and I'm always looking at new angles (I just finished doing some very enlightening genealogy). I'd also like to direct you to Pat Cummings's site; she includes letters and articles by other quilt historians.

(Incidentally, I do not believe that Maude Wahlman actually contributed to "Hidden in Plain View" other than having written a foreword, although the authors may have quoted her somewhere in the book itself.)