About Us

The AIDS Memorial Quilt

The idea for the Quilt originated in November 1985, envisioned by Cleve Jones, a longtime human rights activist, writer, and lecturer. Since the 1978 murders of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone, Jones had been organizing an annual candlelight march in their honor. While preparing for the 1985 march, he learned that AIDS had claimed the lives of over 1,000 people in San Francisco. Jones asked fellow marchers to write the names of friends and loved ones lost to AIDS on placards. At the march’s end, Jones and others taped these placards to the walls of the San Francisco Federal Building, forming a display that resembled a patchwork quilt.

Inspired by this powerful image, Jones and his friends set out to create a larger memorial. A little over a year later, a small group gathered in a San Francisco storefront to document the lives they feared would be forgotten. They aimed to create a tribute for those who had died of AIDS and raise awareness of the disease’s devastation. This gathering laid the foundation for the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.

Jones crafted the first panel in memory of his friend Marvin Feldman. Public support for the Quilt was immediate and widespread. People from AIDS-affected cities like Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco sent panels to the workshop in San Francisco. Generous donors contributed sewing machines, supplies, and other resources, while many volunteers dedicated their time and energy to the project.

On October 11, 1987, the Quilt made its debut on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Spanning an area larger than a football field, the Quilt included 1,920 panels. At dawn, six teams of eight volunteers unfolded the sections in a ceremonial display, as celebrities, politicians, families, friends, and loved ones read aloud the names of those represented. This tradition of reading names has since become a hallmark of nearly every Quilt display. That weekend, half a million people visited the Quilt.

The Quilt’s powerful debut led to a four-month, 20-city national tour in 1988, raising close to $500,000 for hundreds of AIDS service organizations. Over 9,000 volunteers across the country assisted the seven-person traveling team in displaying the Quilt, with each city adding its own panels. By the end of the tour, the Quilt had grown to over 6,000 panels, embodying a collective memory and tribute to those lost to AIDS.