The title to this hand-tinted photograph, written on its back, suggests the happy domesticity of the scene. But it just as easily could be labeled the “Cult of Domesticity.” Here we see two women with their quilts sitting in their North Dakota home, with sewing machine proudly displayed between them. Quilts have long been associated with women’s domesticity, and this image suggests that this family with Norwegian roots understood this symbolic importance of quilts by using them as a prop in their portrait. Fred Hultstrand History in Pictures Collection, NDIRS-NDSU, Fargo.