The AIDS Memorial Quilt

Although AIDS is not the mysterious killer it was back in the 80s, its impact is still rattling through our world.  Today, AIDS affects millions of people worldwide.  The first cases of AIDS were reported in 1981.  By 1987, when AZT was approved as a treatment, over 20,000 people had died of AIDS in the US.  Even into the 90s, although antiretrovirals were out there, most of them could only slow things down.  AIDS was still a death sentence.  Present day, survivors of the AIDS epidemic would be in their thirties and forties.  It is said that every gay person who lived through the epidemic knew at least 2 or 3 people who died. 

A panel in the Quilt dedicated to Marvin Feldman

The NAMES Project Memorial Quilt was started in 1985 by AIDS activist Cleve Jones.  Many people who died of AIDS did not receive funerals because of the social stigma felt by surviving family members and many funeral homes refusing to handle the deceased's remains.  For many, the Quilt was often the only opportunity for survivors to remember and celebrate their loved ones' lives. 


Each panel was about 3 feet by 6 feet, the size of a grave.  Construction choices were left up to the quilter.  Anybody could contribute to the Quilt or help make a panel.  Many people who contributed were dying themselves.  The NAMES Project records information about every panel submitted to them.  The panels are then backed in canvas and sewn together in blocks of eight.  Today, the NAMES Project is responsible for the maintenance and care of the Quilt.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt

In the 1990s, large chunks of the Quilt were traveling through the country.  They would lay all sections of the quilt all over the ground with paths between them, so people could walk through the panels and see all the names there.  At these memorials, there would be a person reading off the names of people on the Quilt.  People would volunteer to read these names in shifts.

The Quilt continues to travel the US today.  The Quilt weighs more than 54 tons and has over 96,000 names.  Even so, it represents maybe 20% of the people who died of AIDS in the US alone.  The AIDS Memorial Quilt is a touching remembrance of the men and women lost to this epidemic.  This generation is not familiar with the terror and grief that suffused the nation during the AIDS epidemic.  Projects like the Quilt remind us of the terrible toll it took on our nation and the world.