Joyce Romeyn GROSS

I have many fond memories of Joyce. I was thinking of her just the other day.....a great researcher and historian but most important a great friend.

Thank you to all that attended Mom's "Celebration of Life" yesterday. It was a grand send off for a grand woman! We will all miss Joyce (Mom) however her spirit will live on through all of us. With Gratitude, Vicki

Joyce Gross: Where to begin? A gifted mind. Behind the gruff exterior, a warm and sharing soul. Cuesta Benberry had introduced me to Joyce at one the first AQSG seminars. Those late night discussions found me in a delightful sandwich between two quilt encyclopedias!
When I first started researching quilt kits, they were considered, as Arene Burgess so aptly puts it "The red haired stepchild of the quilt world." Joyce, with her contacts with Jeanette Throckmorton's family, supplied me with...

I met Joyce a number of years ago and she was one of my favorite people at the quilt symposiums. We had many laughs about the interesting socks that she would wear and I found her to be always happy to see me and always available to enlighten me on quilt history. She was one great lady. Dorothy Stish, Minneapolis, MN

Joyce Gross was one of the pioneers of late-20th century quilt research. She published her findings in a newsletter, The Quilter's Journal, which remains a treasure trove of nuggets relating particularly to quilters and writers of the early 20th century. Her library and ephemera collection are an unsurpassed resource for textile scholars. She was one of a kind, and I feel fortunate to have known her over a period of 30 years.

I was honored to meet Joyce Gross at an exhibition of the quilts she had collected. She was so generous with her time and so excited to share the stories related to the quilts in the exhibition. She paved the way for so many who have come after her, but none will live up to her pioneering accomplishments.
Kay Triplett
Quilt and Textile Collections

I met Joyce several years ago when I imposed upon her to look at the construction of a 19th century quilt I had and explain how it was assembled. This first meeting led to many, many more spent in the building behind her home where I used her library and other resources to research a book and helped her organize the ephemera stored there. We were usually joined by Joyce's wonderful dog, Jess, whom I kept supplied with nummy treats. Joyce never failed to share her library, other resources,...

Were there ever two more dedicated researchers than Joyce Gross and her longtime friend, Cuesta Benberry? They shared an enthusiasm for the printed materials of quilt history: what Cuesta called ephemeral materials and Joyce called "stuff." Both were meticulous archivers, and were known to phone each other daily, sometimes several times a day, to share discoveries, insights, queries. (And that was in the day when one paid by the minute for long distance calls!) The American Quilt Study...

The world of quilt history has lost one of its most influential figures with the death of Joyce Gross. Joyce's lifelong dedication to a painstaking, labor-intensive quilt research project resulted in rooms full of boxes of her notes, all cross-indexed, along with the original printed documentation: more than 1000 quilt books, vast assortments of periodicals ranging back to the early 20th century, ephemera of all kinds, including rare fabric samples. She had a library of original documents...