Quilt, “Cresents” pattern

Sumter County, Alabama

About 1870

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Random blocks and flower baskets quilt.
Cotton in pink, green with yellow background; star design, hand sewn.
Birmingham Persian Wall is a site-specific installation of twenty-one vessels—some over three feet in diameter—that cluster on four adjacent walls in the museum's lobby. Each unit, in a rich shade of yellow, orange or blue, bears a rippling pattern that is clear or in a contrasting color. The vessels, each attached to a cylindrical metal post, float about five inches off the wall.
Embroidered and painted picture on silk, decorated with beading and tassels, featuring a female figure as Liberty, central to the composition, holding up a cup to the American eagle in her right hand and supporting a staff with her left arm, the staff with an American flag, waving as if in a breeze, the stars picked out in metal, and a Phrygian hat with tassels perched on top, in her left hand Liberty holds a floral garland that extends down to the ground, Liberty wears a gold dress with a tasseled sash around her waist and fringe at the hem, she stands atop a key, likely the "Key of Tyranny," the key to the Bastille which had been sent to George Washington in 1790 by Lafayette, and which is symbolic of the American triumph over monarchy and oppression, and garter, with a banner bearing the motto IN ROY M and a broken candlestick, the background features a painted blue and gray cloudy sky with a domed church on the right and a sea or harbor, along with a rock with flowers and grass in the foreground, a column with a floral garland is immediately behind Liberty.