The AIDS Memorial Quilt: 40 Years Later

 by Erin Doane, Senior Curator

In 1981, doctors in Los Angeles reported a rare lung infection in five previously healthy young gay men. Doctors in New York and California also reported cases of a rare, aggressive cancer among gay men. This was the start of the AIDS Epidemic. In September 1982, the U.S. CDC used the term Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) for the first time. French researchers discovered that a retrovirus caused AIDS and it was official named Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in 1986.

Between 1980 and 1987, more than 1,000 San Franciscans died of AIDS. In June 1987, Cleve Jones gathered a small group in that city “to take all of our individual experiences, and stitch them together to make something that had strength and beauty.” That was how the AIDS Memorial Quilt was born. Jones, along with Mike Smith, Gert McMullin, and several others, established the NAMES Project Foundation to formally organize their efforts.

Word of the Quilt project spread quickly to major cities throughout the country. On October 11, 1987, the NAMES Project Foundation displayed the AIDS Memorial Quilt for the first time in Washington, D.C., laying out nearly 2,000 panels on the Capitol Mall. Each fabric panel measures 3-feet by 6-feet and nine panels are sewn together into a 12-foot by 12-foot block. 

Pieces of the quilt were first displayed in the Southern Tier in the late 1980s. In 1989, the Arnot Art Museum hosted two 12-foot by 12-foot blocks while the Corning Museum of Glass and the Rockwell Museum each hosted one. Arnot Art Museum director John D. O’Hern called the Quilt a moving artifact saying, “AIDS doesn’t just affect statistics, it affects people.”

Arnot Art Museum director John D. O’Hern with 
an AIDS Quilt block, Star-Gazette, November 24, 1989

More displays took place throughout the 1990s including at Elmira College, Ithaca College, Cornell University, Corning Community College, Binghamton University, Schuyler-Chemung-Tioga BOCES in Horseheads, the Steele Memorial Library, and the Southern Steuben County Library in Corning.

Evelyn O’Buckley (left) and Wendy Richardson at Elmira College with one of six new 
local AIDS Quilt panels in the background, Star-Gazette, December 12, 1990

Nine blocks of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, made up of 472 individual panels, were laid out at the Murray Athletic Center (the Domes) in Horseheads April 20-22, 1996. Panels on display included those of famous people who had died of AIDS including Rock Hudson, Freddy Mercury, Liberace, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Ryan White. The event was sponsored by Elmira College, Arnot Ogden Medical Center, The Southern Tier AIDS Program, the Southern Tier Interfaith Coalition, Planned Parenthood of the Southern Tier, the Chemung County Health Department, and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. Donations benefitted the Southern Tier AIDS Program, Southern Tier Hospice, HIV Primary Care Clinic at the Arnot Ogden Medical Center, and AIDS Rochester.

Visitors to the event were encouraged to sign their names and share their thoughts on a 12-foot by 12-foot signature block. Over the course of three days, nearly 5,000 people visited the Quilt, including 1,925 students.

Horseheads host signature block created during the Quilt display at the Domes, 
April 20-22, 1996, in the collection of the Chemung County Historical Society

During the event, 29 new panels honoring local residents who had died of AIDS were dedicated and added to the Quilt. One of the panels was made in honor of Rick Teachman, a local AIDS activist. Teachman tested positive for HIV in 1986. He began volunteering with the Chemung County AIDS Task Force and was its president by 1993. He was one of the first people in the Twin Tiers to publicly admit to having the disease and made about 200 speeches around the region trying to put a face on the epidemic. He died on February 10, 1996 at the Arnot Ogden Medical Center due to complication from AIDS. He was 34 years old.

Rick Teachman’s panel being dedicated during the Quilt 
display at the Domes, Star-Gazette, April 22, 1996

When the AIDS Memorial Quilt was on display in Horseheads, the Star-Gazette published statistics on AIDS in the Southern Tier. Local cases of AIDS increased between June 1993 to April 1995:
    ·        Chemung: from 39 cases to 63 
    ·        Tioga: from 9 cases to 16
    ·        Steuben: from 20 cases to 34
    ·        Schuyler: from 5 cases to 11

At the height of the epidemic in the early 1990s, nearly 80,000 new cases of HIV were being reported in the U.S. each year with more than 50,000 deaths. Educational campaigns, the increased availability of HIV testing, and the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and antiretroviral therapy (ART) after exposure have contributed to a decline in new cases and deaths. In 2022, 31,800 new cases of HIV were reported along with 19,310 deaths. Today, more than 1.2 million people in the United States are living with HIV. 

The AIDS Memorial Quilt is considered the largest community art project in history. Today, the 54-ton tapestry has roughly 50,000 panels with more than 110,000 names. It has increased public awareness of the AIDS epidemic through thousands of displays around the country and helped to show the humanity behind the statistics. The Quilt is now under the stewardship of the National AIDS Memorial. You can visit www.aidsmemorial.org for more information about how to create a Quilt panel, make a donation, or host a community display. The National AIDS Memorial has also digitized all of the Quilt panels and created an interactive website where you can search for the panels of friends and loved ones.

The 1996 Horseheads host signature block is on display at CCHS now through April 30, 2026.