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Mary Lee Bendolph (b. 1935) is one of the most admired quilters associated with Gee’s Bend, Ala., a rural, predominately Black community that has been honored through touring museum exhibitions such as The Quilts of Gee’s Bend (2002) and The Architecture of the Quilt (2006). In 2015, the National Endowment for the Arts recognized Bendolph’s distinctive style and accomplishments with a National Heritage Fellowship. Soon after, Mount Holyoke College Museum of Art began organizing a solo exhibition, Piece Together, the Quilts of Mary Lee Bendolph, which was presented at Swarthmore College’s List Gallery in Fall 2018.  Andrea Packard organized and edited the exhibition catalog and accompanying oral history projects.

Bendolph was born in a pole cabin and learned aesthetic strategies from her mother, Aolar Carson Mosely, and an extended community of women who found quilt making essential. The seventh of 17 children, Mary Lee Bendolph made her first quilt at the age of 12, and continued quilting into her 80s.

As her son, Rubin Bendolph, Jr. has stated: “The quilts served so many purposes. Mom would piece the tops by herself and then her mother and other relatives, they’d come by to help, and while quilting, the ladies would be praying and singing. On some occasions, after everyone left, she would be sitting there alone, sewing and singing and praying to God, sayin’ ‘I got so much burden, I need your help, to let me bear this.’ It would pierce your soul to hear this. It would stop you in your tracks.”

We gratefully acknowledge and honor Mary Lee Bendolph; her daughter, Essie Bendolph, also an esteemed quilter; Rubin Bendolph, Jr. (1962-2024), and other Bendolph family members for supporting the List Gallery exhibition and sharing their stories at Swarthmore.