[3] The idea for the NAMES Project Memorial Quilt was conceived on November 27, 1985, by AIDS activist Cleve Jones during the annual candlelight march, in remembrance of the 1978 assassinations of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone.

[6] The NAMES Project officially started in 1987 in San Francisco by Jones, Mike Smith, and volunteers Joseph Durant, Jack Caster, Gert McMullin, Ron Cordova, Larkin Mayo, Steve Kirchner, and Gary Yuschalk.

[7] Lacking a memorial service or grave site, the Quilt was often the only opportunity survivors had to remember and celebrate their loved ones' lives.

[4] Each panel measures three by six feet (90 by 180 centimeters), approximately the size of the average grave; this connects the ideas of AIDS and death more closely.

Comprising 1,920 panels and covering an area larger than a football field, 48 volunteers ceremonially unfolded the Quilt at sunrise.

[3][10][11] The inaugural national tour of The Quilt took place in spring and summer 1988, raising nearly half a million dollars.

The quilt, more than 10 times its original size, with over 21,000 handmade panels, stretched from the base of the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial in Presidents Park.

[16] During President Clinton's inaugural parade on January 20, 1993, the NAMES Project participated with over 200 volunteers marching down Pennsylvania Avenue, carrying 90 Quilt panels.

The collection is searchable by block number or name, allowing users to read the stories stitched into each panel.

In 2019, the organization announced that the Quilt would be relocating to San Francisco under the permanent care and stewardship of the National AIDS Memorial.

[30] Construction choices are left to the quilter and techniques such as traditional fabric quilting, embroidery, applique, paint and stencil, beading, and iron-ons are common.

[37][38] The AIDS Memorial Quilt was the first of its kind as a continually growing monument created piecemeal by thousands of individuals, and as of 2007, it constituted the largest piece of community folk art in the world.

[74] In November 2019 the NAMES Project Foundation and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the quilt would relocate to San Francisco under the permanent care and stewardship of the National AIDS Memorial starting in 2020.

[75] The Project's archives were gifted to the joint care with the American Folklife Center at the U.S. Library of Congress, allowing for greater public access.