Elizabeth Holloran

1917 - 2009

(Sarah) Elizabeth Holloran (1917–2009) was born in Gloucester to John A. and Cora (Ferguson) Johnson. She studied fashion design and illustration at the Vesper George School of Art in Boston and graduated in 1940. In 1942, she married Robert Holloran and they had two children, Elizabeth and Timothy. From 1942 through 1945, Holloran worked as the children’s librarian at the Sawyer Free Library in Gloucester. She joined the Folly Cove Designers after seeing a block printed skirt in a Cape Ann store window with an advertisement for Demetrios’ design classes. In 1974 she opened her own block printing shop in Rockport. After her death the Sarah Elizabeth Shop was kept in operation by Isabel Natti, niece of Folly Cove Designer Eino Natti. Following Isabel Natti’s death in 2011, Cape Ann resident Julia Garrison took over the Shop, printing her own designs on Eino Natti’s Acorn press—the same press that was used by the Designers in their barn in Folly Cove—keeping alive the spirit of the Folly Cove Designers and block printing.