About this Collection | AIDS Memorial Quilt Records | Digital Collections | Library of Congress
This online collection presents digitized images of the AIDS Memorial Quilt panel maker files housed in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The panel maker files contain more than 150,000 mementos and ephemera submitted by Quilt panel makers to the NAMES Project and the National AIDS Memorial, which memorializes victims of HIV/AIDS. Conceived by Cleve Jones and friends in response to the AIDS epidemic unfolding in San Francisco, California, it was first displayed on the National Mall on October 11, 1987 at the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. The Quilt's impact was immediate and helped transform discussions about HIV/AIDS victims, treatment, prevention, prejudice, and taboos. Since 1987 the Quilt has grown to nearly 50,000 panels memorializing 110,000 individuals - the largest piece of community folk art ever created - and has traveled all over the world.