Signatures hold key to mystery quilt maker

The National Museum is piecing together the mystery of who made a 120-year-old quilt.

The 1894 "autograph quilt" is embroidered with 650 signatures of Melbourne society figures, Londoners and even former slaves from South Africa.

It's one of the earliest known signature quilts in Australia, made for fundraisers where people bought squares that were embroidered with their names or monograms.

This particular one was organised by philanthropist Lady Janet Clarke, initially to raise funds for a new organ at Saint Mary's Church of England in Sunbury, Melbourne.

It was later auctioned at a Presbyterian Church fair in response to the 1895 Kucheng Massacre in China.

The museum has identified a handful of those who contributed, including then-Victorian governor the Earl of Hopetoun, who later became Australia's first governor-general, legal identity Sir Thomas a Beckett, Protestant intellectual Rev Llewelyn David Bevan, and missionaries and former slaves living on a South African mission.

It wants help to identify as many of the other contributors as possible to learn more of the quilt's story.

People can view images of the quilt on the National Museum's website, which also has a transcription of its names, initials and motifs.