"Dates and names aren't history. It has to mean something," said Lucille Adkins, instructor for the course and La Roche College registrar. Adkins believes her class assignment had meaning not only for her students, but also for the entire La Roche community. To commemorate women's history month in March, her students had to study the life of a woman who was born, lived or died in the 19th century. Then, they had to create an individual panel for a quilt. Each panel would represent the contributions of important women in the 1800s.

"Women in the nineteenth century had few channels of expression," said Adkins. "While quilts served household purposes, they were also a means of expression. Women incorporated their beliefs, from religion to politics, into quilting. I wanted my students to see women as dynamic individuals."

Once students completed the individual panels and presented them to the class, Adkins joined the patches together to create one quilt. Among the women depicted on the panels are Harriet Tubman, Nellie Bly, Emily Dickinson and Amy Beach. Adkins named the quilt "19th Century Women Who Dared."

This unique history lesson served another purpose for Adkins' students. "As we shared, we also bonded as a class," said Diane Dowker, a student in the class. "We talked about personal connections to the subject matter." The quilt was on display in the Wright Library throughout March.