Images(4)

Quilt, "Fans"

Date1939-1943; finished 1982

Quilted by Dorothy "Dot" Davidson Shaifer American, 1908 - 2005

Pieced by Libby Shaifer Hollingsworth

Pieced by John Montgomery

OriginAmerica, Mississippi, Claiborne County

MediumCotton, synthetic batting

Dimensions77 X 83 inches

Credit LineGift of The Children of Elizabeth Shaifer Hollingsworth - Allison Shaifer Hollingsworth Moxey, Ann Davidson Hollingsworth Weeden and Christopher Alton Hollingsworth, and The Children of Sanfrid Davidson Shaifer - Mary Laura Shaifer Bell, Jodie Stovall Shaifer Huddleston and Sanfrid Davidson Shaifer, Jr.

Object number2025.609.11

DescriptionRectangular quilt pieced with 45 open fans of printed cottons in pastels and light shades of pink, green, blue, yellow, and lavender on off-white grounds. The fan blocks alternate with off-white blocks. The pieced fan blocks are quilted around the fans and the white blocks are quilted with 4-5 running stitches per inch, echoing the shape of the pastel fans. Edges are finished with one-inch-wide white bias binding. Off-white cotton backing and thin synthetic batting.Label TextThis quilt is part of a large donation of quilts by the Shaifer family of Claiborne County, MS. These 46 quilts were made by women from four successive generations of the family, dating from the mid-1800s to the 1980s.

Though quilts may survive with only one named maker, they are rarely the products of a single pair of hands. This quilt, for example, was pieced in the late 1930s and early 1940s by Elizabeth "Libby" Shaifer (1933-2016) and her cousin John Malhoit Montgomery (1934-1977). Decades later, Libby's mother, Dorothy Davidson Shaifer (1908-2005) set the pieces together and finished the quilting. Libby later recalled neighbors, friends, and other families assisting with cutting pieces for quilts- and even sending quilts out to be quilted.ProvenanceLate 1930s-1940s, Elizabeth Shaifer (Mrs. Al) Hollingsworth [1933-2016] (Claiborne County, MS); 2025 gift of Shaifer children via Mr. Al Hollingsworth to Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA)