In 1940, Russell Lee ventured to Pie Town, New Mexico, to conduct a small-town study. Lee took multiple photographs of Mrs. Bill Stagg and her quilts. His words accompanying the image celebrated the quiltmaker’s ingenuity and thrift, characteristic of the perseverance the Roosevelt administration wished to cultivate in Americans nationwide. Lee has posed her, quite appropriately, in front of a log home, another potent symbol of the self-sufficiency of rugged Americans, such as these so-called homesteaders.

[Full Title: "Mrs. Bill Stagg exhibiting a quilt made from tobacco sacks which she ripped up, dyed, and pieced. Nothing is wasted on these homesteading farms."]