Images(6)

Quilt, Pieced Mariner's Compass

Dateca. 1860

Maker Mary Ann McPherson (1809-1901)

OriginAmerica, Maryland, Charles County

MediumPlain and printed cottons (fiber identification by eye)

DimensionsOverall: OH: 90" x OW: 85 1/2" (228.6 × 217.2cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2021.609.2

DescriptionThis is a rectangular pieced quilt consisting of sixteen blocks in the Mariner's Compass pattern. The pieced compass points are in blue, brown, and pink printed cottons. Some of the printed cottons have fancy machine grounds and others are "rainbow browns." The quilt has a six-to-eight-inch border of printed cotton and rounded corners. It is quilted in 6-7 running stitches per inch in diagonal lines, feathers (large plumes), diamonds, and stipple. The border fabric is brought to the back and folded under to form an edge finish. It is backed in three panels (widths: 34", 34", 17 1/2") of plain white cotton.
Label TextMary Ann McPherson's quilt is skillfully pieced, as well as finely quilted with stipple and feather patterns. Commonly known as "Mariner's Compass," the design is one of the earliest quilt patterns and was probably inspired by the compass rose, a decorative feature found on charts and maps.
Mary Ann was raised at Greenway, a tobacco plantation near Pomonkey, Charles County, Maryland. Enslaved people who worked in the home and fields undoubtedly provided Mary and her six siblings a comfortable lifestyle, one that gave her the leisure time to create quilts. Two of Mary Ann's quilts have survived and are now in the Colonial Williamsburg collection.
ProvenanceProvenance and History of Quilt Maker
Mary Ann McPherson (1809-1901) was the oldest daughter of Thomas and Jane Benson McPherson who married in 1808. She was raised at Greenway, a tobacco plantation near Pomonkey, Charles County, Maryland. Her family owned enslaved people who worked in the home and fields to provide Mary and her six siblings a comfortable lifestyle--one that gave her the leisure time to create three quilts, two of which have survived and are now in the Colonial Williamsburg collection. Mary Ann never married and after the death of her father, she and her four maiden sisters lived with her brother, William Benjamin Benson McPherson, in the family home. Her father's will left Mary Ann and her sisters equal shares of enslaved people, livestock, and bedding. Mary Ann received six enslaved people, horses, cows, sheep, hogs, two bedsteads with bedding, a carpet, and manure forks. She lived a long life and is buried at St. John's Episcopal Church. Mary Ann's quilts descended through her brother's family line to his granddaughter, Jane Virginia McPherson Burton, who was a school teacher. Jane had no children and sold the quilts to Susan Duvall Smith, an antiques dealer. The quilts then went to Susan's daughter, Mary Lucille Smith Spiller, who owned the quilts in 1995.