Folk Art Needlepoint With African American Angels Based on Book Pictures

Embroidered Pictures

In the early 1800s, silk-embroidered pictures became a pop grade of needlework in America, and immature women could larn this challenging needlework technique at specialized academies. (In this case, needlework can exist defined every bit embellishing cloth with designs stitched with a needle and thread.) In addition to patriotic scenes, subjects included classical, biblical, historical, and the ever-popular mourning pictures.

The death of George Washington gave impetus to a new fad, the mourning picture. It included an assortment of plinth, urn, mourners, and willow trees in a garden setting. They ofttimes show relatives or friends grieving before a monument dedicated to a lost loved one.

Canvas work, which today is known every bit needlepoint, was a course of embroidery that was likewise used to create pictures. It was done by immature women in specialized academies also as past adults. The primeval slice in the Textile Collection was done by Mary Williams in 1744 and the latest in 1935 by Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt II.

In that location are approximately l embroidered pictures in the Cloth Collection.

Folio 1 of two

Young Homo and Adult female with Canis familiaris

Description

After a young lady learned to embroider a sampler, she might attend a female university to brand a silk embroidered picture. This was a more than challenging technique that became pop in the early 1800s. Subjects included classical, biblical, and historical scenes, likewise as mourning pictures.

This rectangular embroidered picture portrays a immature man and woman and a dog in a pastoral scene with a floral wreath border around all the edges. The homo and woman are in Regency style wear. The faces, dark curly pilus, artillery, and hands are painted, as is the sky background. The floral border is elaborate, with much detail. The drinking glass mat, which has been removed, has a opposite one-inch band painted black with a ane/4" golden band effectually the edges. In the lower ring is the name SOPHIA HARSEN. The ground is ivory sheer cotton fabric, sewn to a silk satin after it was embroidered. The thread is silk floss and chenille and the stitches are laid, direct, and satin

There is a Sophia Harsen born July ten, 1815, in New York Urban center, New York. Further research is needed to find other silk embroidered pictures of this style worked with a provenance of New York City to substantiate this attribution.

Location

Currently not on view

ID Number

1989.0343.01

itemize number

1989.0343.01

accession number

1989.0343

Information Source

National Museum of American History
Margaret McKay

Description

After a young lady learned to embroider a sampler, she might attend a female academy to brand a silk embroidered picture. This was a more challenging technique that became pop in the early on 1800s. Subjects included classical, biblical, and historical scenes, as well every bit mourning pictures.

This pastoral scene shows a boyfriend seated under a tree with a horn slung over his shoulder, and property a piece of bread (?). Before him stands a young adult female carrying a sack, at which a dog is sniffing. The oval scene is surrounded past a unmarried line of stem sew, ane/4" beyond the picture. The border is embroidered with an undulating ribbon tied in a bow at the lower edge and entwined with sprays of roses, lilies, morning glories, carnations, daisies, and other flowers. At the lower edge of the oval embroidery, printed in ink, is the inscription: "MARGARET McKAY Thousand. Eastward. & A. SKETCHLEY's BOARDING SCHOOL HAERLEM LANE." The picture is worked on a twill-weave ivory silk ground and the stitches used are satin, long and short, stalk, directly, chain, and French knot.

The Sketchley'southward school connected at Haerlem Lane in Poughkeepise, NY from 1801 until 1804. The name "Grand. E. & A. Sketchley" and the address or town, were usually worked on the silk embroideries of their students. The Sketchleys also taught in North Carolina and Virginia. The embroideries include elegant scenes in the neoclassical taste, but lack any distinct characteristics that would help place unsigned pieces.

Margaret McKay is probably the sister of Capt. George Knox McKay (1791-1814). Her embroidery descended in his family until it was given to the National Museum of American History.

Location

Currently not on view

date fabricated

1806-1809

maker

McKay, Margaret

ID Number

1987.0785.01

itemize number

1987.0785.01

accession number

1987.0785

Data Source

National Museum of American History
Attack Scene

Description

In the 20th century, women's hobbies included embroidery techniques such as needlepoint, crewel, and silk embroidery.

This unfinished companion piece to "The Legend of Czar Saltan," nevertheless on its frame made by Cornelius V. S. Roosevelt. Information technology portrays the "attack scene" from the legend. (run into Eleanor Roosevelt'due south embroidery of the legend.) The golden cockerel has attacked the Arbiter, knocked his crown off his head and is pecking his head. The cockerel's embroidery is finished, the Czar's head is partially embroidered, with pilus, centre and blood drops finished. The residual of the picture is drawn on the fabric. The picture consists of a circle which included the Czar'south caput, part of the crown and the cockerel. The basis is linen and the threads are silk and metallic. The stitches are laid and couched, outline, stem, split.

Eleanor Butler Alexander was built-in on December 26, 1888, to Henry and Grace Green Alexander in New York city. She married Theodore Roosevelt II (1887-1944) on 20 June 1910, and they had four children: Grace, Theodore Three, Cornelius Five. S. and Quentin. She died on May 29, 1960, at Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York.

maker

Roosevelt, Eleanor Butler Alexander

ID Number

1990.0656.04A

accession number

1990.0656

catalog number

1990.0656.04A

Data Source

National Museum of American History
Lady Elizabeth Greyness Petitioning Male monarch Edward 4

Description

Later a young lady learned to embroider a sampler, she might nourish a female academy to make a silk embroidered moving picture. This was a more challenging technique that became pop in the early 1800s. Subjects included classical, biblical, and historical scenes, also as mourning pictures.

This expertly stitched large chenille work flick represents Lady Elizabeth Grayness petitioning Rex Edward IV for the return of her husband'southward land, following Edward's victory over the Lancasterians in 1461, in which Lord Grayness died. Lady Elizabeth is in a kneeling position, one knee on the ground, and her left arm around a small boy standing beside her. Her right manus is held past King Edward. On the left are two young men attendants, one holding a staff and dressed in the menstruum of the consequence (1460s) as is Rex Edward. On the correct are three women attendants dressed, as is Lady Elizabeth, in costumes of the period in which the embroidery was done, 1815. Information technology is assumed the children'southward mother is Lady Elizabeth Grey. Edward IV and Lady Elizabeth were afterward married and their sons were the "princes of the tower." Their daughter Elizabeth married Henry VII, unifying the Yorks and Lancasters and establishing the Tudor line. The ground is pale aureate silk satin, and the threads are silk chenille, silk floss, and metal. The stitches are encroaching satin, laid chenille piece of work, satin, and French knots.

The design of this embroidery is based on an engraving made by William Wynn Ryland, after a painting of this result by Angelica Kauffmann.

Elizabeth Cassel was built-in September 12, 1800, in Marietta, Pennsylvania, to Henry and Catherine Neff Cassel. She died unmarried in 1891. This slice of embroidery was considered very important to the family unit and Daniel Cassel in his book A Genealogical History of the Cassel Family in American (Norristown, Pennsylvania: Morgan R. Wills, 1896) mentions it forth with the family genealogy. It was given to the National Museum of American History by a descendant. For more than data near this embroidery see Piecework, March/April 2007, "3 American Schoolgirl Silk Embroideries from the Smithsonian" by Sheryl De Jong.

Location

Currently not on view

maker

Cassel, Elizabeth T.

ID Number

1991.0841.01

catalog number

1991.0841.01

accession number

1991.0841

Data Source

National Museum of American History
Isaac Gorham Memorial

Description

After a young lady learned to embroider a sampler, she might attend a female person academy to make a silk embroidered film. This was a more challenging technique that became pop in the early 1800s. Subjects included classical, biblical, and historical scenes, as well as mourning pictures. The death of George Washington gave impetus to this new fad of the mourning picture. The genre included an assortment of plinths, urn, mourners, and trees in a garden setting.

This mourning embroidery by Mary Gorham was dedicated to her father, Capt. Isaac Gorham. The pastoral image shows a woman approaching an urn on a plinth that rests beneath a three-branched weeping willow. The large gilt urn, outlined in brown and garlanded with flowers, carries on its marble-simulated silk embroidered pedestal the inked inscription: "Cap.t Isaac / Gorham born / February.y 15 . 1747 . died / Aug.t. 13. 1795. aged / 48." The young adult female, in a white Regency costume with a brownish bow, stands to the right of the urn. Her bonnet is completed in black ink; her features and curls are inked in brown; i arm is outlined in graphite, and the other is barely visible backside a willow branch. The picture is in the original gilded leaf frame, and the drinking glass is contrary-painted in blackness, with gold foliage motifs in each corner and a 1/4" gold rim around the oval mourning moving-picture show with the maker's proper noun, "M. GORHAM," at the lesser. It is stitched on a evidently weave ivory silk ground with silk embroidery threads. The stitches are seed, lazy daisy, straight, satin, and outline.

This case includes the typical objects found in mourning embroideries: a garden, weeping willow trees, a woman in mourning, and an urn on a plinth. The willow tree is a symbol of mourning and sorrow as well as a tree that drains the basis of water, thereby keeping the site dry. Capt. Isaac Gorham was a mariner and he died at sea.

Mary Gorham was born December 10, 1791, to Isaac and Sarah Thomas Gorham in Bristol, Rhode Island. She married Rev. John P. K. Henshaw(1792-1852) on July nineteen, 1814. They had 11 children: John Kewley (1815-1843), Alexander (1817-1854), Mary Gorham (1819-1888), William Milnor (1820-1850), Rev. Daniel (1822-1908), Charles Henry (1825-1825), Elizabeth West. (1826-1826), I. Gorham (1828-1828), Charles Henry (1830-1910), Richmond (1833-1890), and Sarah (1831-1832). Mary died September 26, 1881, in Bristol, Rhode Island. Come across her older sister Jemina Gorham'south sampler.

Location

Currently not on view

engagement made

ca 1805

maker

Gorham, Mary

ID Number

2007.0156.01

accession number

2007.0156

itemize number

2007.0156.01

Data Source

National Museum of American History
These Are My Jewels

Description

Subsequently a young lady learned to embroider a sampler, she might attend a female person academy to brand a silk embroidered film. This was a more challenging technique that became popular in the early 1800s. Subjects included classical, biblical, and historical scenes, as well equally mourning pictures.

A Roman lady, with her three children, is depicted with a seated Roman matron holding a box of jewels. The standing lady holds the hand of the youngest kid, who is admiring a brooch, and gestures toward her other two children - a male child carrying a curlicue on which the letters "ABC" are visible, and a slightly older daughter conveying a slate. The heads, arms, legs, and feet of the figures, the background heaven, and the bushes are painted. Below the picture, embroidered in black silk stem run up, is the inscription, "THESE ARE MY JEWELS." It has a glass mat reverse-painted white with a five/eight" aureate, black, and violet geometric band. At the lower edge, in gold are the words, "WROUGHT by LYDIA BOWLES AUSTIN at MRS. SAUNDERS & MISS Embankment'S University." The picture is worked on a plain-weave ivory silk ground with silk embroidery threads and is lined with linen. The stitches are satin, split, outline, and chain.

The championship of the embroidery is taken from a Roman fable which tells of Cornelia, with her children, visiting a wealthy Roman lady who proudly displays her collection of jewelry and then asks to encounter Cornelia's jewelry. To this Cornelia replies "These are my jewels," indicating her children. The picture is a re-create of an engraving by Bartolozzi, entitled "Cornelia Mother of the Gracchi" which was published in London in 1788, copied from a painting past Angelica Kauffmann.

In 1803 Judith Foster Saunders and Clementina Beach moved to Dorchester, Massachusetts, and started a school for young ladies. They used the services of John Doggett for much of the framing of the needlework pieces. The framing included glass mats that had the proper name of the embroiderer too as the proper name of the school, which has fabricated it easy to identify pieces from their school.

Lydia Bowles Austin, daughter of Joseph and Lydia Bowles Austin of Boston, Massachusetts was born in 1792 and died unmarried in Boston on July eighteen, 1824. Her father was a bakery.

Location

Currently not on view

maker

Austin, Lydia Bowles

ID Number

1996.0125.01

catalog number

1996.0125.01

accession number

1996.0125

Information Source

National Museum of American History
Jane Louck's embroidered picture; The Ascension; 1850

Description

By the 1840s a new technique in the field of needlepoint, known as Berlin wool work, was the rage. Information technology arose in Germany at the starting time of the 19th century. New dyes became available and brightly colored wools could be worked in tent run up on canvas. The patterns were painted past mitt on "point paper," which today would be chosen graph newspaper. Jane's piece is an case of this technique.

This rectangular canvas work piece depicts the Rise of Jesus. The biblical business relationship is found in Acts ane: 9-xi. Jesus is the main figure, upper centre. He wears robes and at that place is a halo or nimbus around his head. Two men and one adult female on the ground partially cover their eyes, as if blinded past the light. The faces, hands, and anxiety are done in petit point. The picture is worked on penelope canvas ground, 14/28 threads per inch, with Berlin wool in tent/one-half cross run up. The colors of this piece are vivid. The frame is original to the picture; with reverse painted glass and gilded gesso molding on the frame itself. An inscription, "The Rise J.Eastward.Fifty." is located in the bottom edge.

Jane Elizabeth Loucks was built-in in 1835 to John and Desdemonia Marsh Loucks in Sharon, New York. She married Joseph Warren Hastings on Feb 16, 1871, in Manhattan. They moved to Illinois and had i daughter, Dena. See her other pieces; Mary Queen of Scots and The Offering of Isaac.

Location

Currently non on view

date made

1850

associated date

1961

maker

Loucks, Jane Elizabeth

ID Number

TE.T11104.01

catalog number

T11104

accession number

238291

Data Source

National Museum of American History
Memorial to George Washington

Description

After a young lady learned to embroider a sampler, she might attend a female university to brand a silk embroidered picture show. This was a more than challenging technique that became pop in the early on 1800s. Subjects included classical, biblical, and historical scenes, also every bit mourning pictures. The death of George Washington gave impetus to this new fad of the mourning picture. It included an assortment of plinth, urn, mourners, and trees in a garden setting.

This oval embroidered memorial to George Washington features an urn-topped plinth. The urn is inscribed "GW" and the inscription on the plinth is "SACRED TO THE Memory OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS WASHINGTON." To the left of this group are two weeping willow copse with crossed trunks. On the far right are 2 poplar trees beyond a pocket-size pond. Overhead is an angel with a trumpet and a laurel wreath. The willow tree is a symbol of mourning and sorrow, as well equally a tree that drains the footing of water, thereby keeping the site dry. The angel, trumpet, and laurel wreath is an emblematic figure of "fame." The garden is a symbol of the Resurrection and everlasting promise. Designed by Samuel Folwell, it was probably worked at his wife Elizabeth's school for young ladies in Philadelphia. Folwell traveled down the East Declension painting portraits and may have drawn this design for girls to embroider in 1 of several southern cities; it was a popular pattern and many examples of this same embroidered limerick however exist. In improver, the design was copied by other artists and stitchers, in somewhat less polished versions. This case appears to have been painted (heads, hands, etc.) by Folwell himself. This motion picture is worked on a manifestly-weave ivory silk basis with silk embroidery threads. The stitches used are long and short, chain, satin, stem, and French knot.

The embroiderer is unknown.

Location

Currently non on view

ID Number

TE.T19321

catalog number

T19321

accretion number

256396

Data Source

National Museum of American History
Mourning Embroidery

Clarification

Subsequently a young lady learned to embroider a sampler, she might attend a female academy to make a silk embroidered picture. This was a more challenging technique that became popular in the early 1800s. Subjects included classical, biblical, and historical scenes, as well every bit mourning pictures. The death of George Washington gave impetus to this new fad of the mourning motion-picture show. It included an assortment of plinth, urn, mourners, and trees in a garden setting.

This square embroidered picture depicts a young girl weeping, kneeling abreast a plinth topped by an urn beneath a weeping willow tree. There was once an inscription glued on the plinth, merely it is now missing from the oval. The girl is dressed in an ivory and pale aureate Empire fashion clothes with lacy edging around the square neck. The embroidered weeping figure, plinth, chenille tree and chenille ground are surrounded by painted water. A aureate inscription on a black mat at the bottom says, "Wrought by Sophia W. Childs, Charleston, 1827." It is stitched on a patently weave ivory silk ground with silk floss and chenille. The stitches are satin, long and short, laid, and straight.

This mourning embroidery contains the usual motifs of a plinth with an urn, weeping willow trees and a young lady mourning. The Regency style clothes would accept been the dress of the period and helps to date the picture show.

Sophia Wyman Childs married Jeremiah Holmes Kimball (1802-1849) of Woburn, Massachusetts, on February 24, 1828. She died erstwhile earlier November 1832, when Jeremiah midweek Jerusha Ann Richardson.

Location

Currently not on view

date made

1827

associated engagement

1964-12

maker

Childs, Sophia Wyman

ID Number

TE.T19319

accession number

256396

catalog number

T19319

Data Source

National Museum of American History
Faith, Promise, & Charity

Description

Past the 1840s a new technique [in the field] of needlepoint known as Berlin wool work was the rage. It arose in Germany at the commencement of the 19th century. New dyes became available and brightly colored wools could be worked in tent stitch on canvas. The patterns were painted by hand on "point newspaper," which today would exist chosen graph paper. Some of the patterns were copies of famous paintings.

This rectangular Berlin wool work piece depicts Faith, Hope, and Charity. The iii large seated female person figures in the center of the piece of work. The one on the left is property a infant, the one in the center holds a chalice and a book, and the one on the correct holds a flower. 3 small children are in the heart foreground, i holding a parasol and another with a dog. At the bottom is stitched: "EMMA FRANCES Plumage – 1855." It is embroidered on cotton sheet that has a warp of 28/in and weft of 24/in. The thread is worsted wool and the stitches are cantankerous and one-half cantankerous.

Faith, Hope, and Charity are three theological virtues. The woman on the left represents Charity, the woman in the center, Faith, and the woman on the right, Hope. The opening blossom she is holding is a symbol for hope. The more traditional symbol for hope is an anchor.

Emma Frances Feather was born on June 27, 1840, in Reading, Pennsylvania, to James Augustus and Mary Ann Fisher Feather. She married Levi G. Coleman on February 23, 1897. She died Jan 31, 1906. In the Reading, Pennsylvania, directories, she is listed as a vestmaker and Levi is listed equally a merchant tailor.

Location

Currently not on view

date fabricated

1855

maker

Plume, Emma Frances

ID Number

TE.T15608

catalog number

T15608

accession number

298622

Information Source

National Museum of American History
Charity

Description

After a young lady learned to embroider a sampler, she might attend a female person academy to brand a silk embroidered moving picture. This was a more challenging technique that became popular in the early 1800s. Subjects included classical, biblical, and historical scenes, too as mourning pictures.

In an oval with couched chenille outline, a woman is followed by a kid. She carries an infant and a basket of breadstuff, and she is giving bread to a barefoot boy in patched clothing. Framing the oval are wheat-heads, stems, leaves, lilies, and a garland of roses with bow-knots held by a raised ¬work eagle with spread wings. It is worked on an ivory silk footing. The stitches used are satin, long and short, outline, French knot, seed, and couching. The threads are silk, chenille, and metal.

The source of the design is "Clemency," an image engraved past C. Stampa in London, 1802. Charity is one of the three theological virtues and is oftentimes represented as a female effigy. The eagle was a national emblem of victory through the blessings of God, and is oftentimes institute on other embroideries done at the Misses Patten'due south school in Hartford, Connecticut. Misses Sarah, Ruth, and Mary Patten, along with their mother Ruth Wheelock Patten, operated a very successful girls' school in Hartford, Connecticut from almost 1785 to 1825.

Rachel Breck was born on July 22, 1792, to Joseph and Abigail Kingsley Breck of Northampton, Massachusetts. She married George Hooker on June 20, 1819, and they had eight children. Rachel died Jan vi, 1879, in Long Meadow, Massachusetts. She attended Deerfield Academy in 1806, but embroidered "Charity" at the Misses Patten's school in Hartford, Connecticut.

date made

1810

maker

Breck, Rachel

ID Number

TE.E388172

itemize number

E388172

accession number

182022

Data Source

National Museum of American History
Prison Scene

Description

After a young lady learned to embroider a sampler, she might nourish a female university to make a silk embroidered picture. This was a more than challenging technique that became pop in the early 1800s. Subjects included classical, biblical, and historical scenes, as well as mourning pictures.

This embroidered film depicts a prison house scene. The key figure is a uniformed official. He wears a tricorn hat, articulatio genus britches, a brusk bluish glaze with buttons that seem to accept been made by group several tiny metal beads, a jabot on his shirt, knee stockings, and shoes. He appears to be receiving a small bag, possibly of coin, in his right mitt from the adult female in the scene. His left manus is held past a daughter on her knees, showing gratitude, kissing his mitt. She has long wavy hair and a curt sleeved belted gown of the period, with a coiled metallic wire embellishment at the hem. Four figures are to the left of the officer: a woman supporting an injured man, who is a prisoner, sitting, and 2 girls hovering. The man has a bandage effectually his caput. He is well dressed in clothes of the period, with a large shawl effectually his lap and legs. His bondage are broken, indicating his release. It appears to be a female parent/wife and children ransoming their husband/father from the prison. A jailor, half hidden, holds a ring of keys and looks disapprovingly from the doorway. The ground fabric is silk satin. The thread is silk floss and there is coiled metal wire and chaplet. The stitches are satin, encroaching satin, directly, French knots, elongated chain, and laid.

This slice could be English or American. Nothing is known near whom the prisoner might be or who embroidered it.

Location

Currently not on view

ID Number

TE.E388177

catalog number

E388177

accession number

182022

Data Source

National Museum of American History
Caroline Winn Memorial Mourning Picture show; Susan Winn; ca. 1816

Description

A mourning pic embroidered by Susan Winn, about 1816, in Lititz, PA, and dedicated to her sis, Caroline, who died in 1806 as an infant. The circular embroidered movie is surrounded by a band of couched chenille busy with gold spangles. It shows a woman, two girls, and a male child gathered around a cloth-draped urn on which is printed "rests in Peace." The woman and girls wear necklaces with pendants or plaques; the one worn by the girl on the right is lettered "SW." The boy holds a volume on which is printed "Ble--ed are the Dead that dice in the Fifty---." Printed in blueish ink on the forepart of the plinth is "Sacred to the Memory / of my honey Sis / CAROLINE WINN. / Sweet exist Thy sepulchral rest / Sister dear! supremely blest! / May the ties which usa unite / Exist renew'd in realms of light! / Erected past Susan Winn." In a gilded wood frame, it measures 25" 10 25", and its black mat is reverse-painted on the glass. The basis is twill-weave ivory silk, and the stitches are satin, long and brusque, stem, and couching.

Susan was born October 18, 1801, to John and Susanna Winn in Baltimore, Maryland. Her male parent was a flour merchant and entered Susan and Elizabeth in the Moravian boarding school, Linden Hall Seminary, in Lititz, Pennsylvania in 1815. Susan married John Reynolds on December 23, 1824.

Mourning designs appear in many 19th-century decorative arts, including needlework. Embroidered landscapes, usually worked by schoolgirls, often show relatives or friends grieving before a monument dedicated to a lost loved 1. For more about this embroidery and other schoolgirl needlework, see Girlhood Embroidery, American Samplers & Pictorial Needlework by Betty Band (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993) and The "Ornamental Branches," Needlework and Arts from the Lititz Moravian Girls' School Betwixt 1800 and 1865 by Patricia T. Herr (Lancaster, PA: The Heritage Middle Museum of Lancaster County, 1996).

Location

Currently not on view

appointment made

ca 1816

associated dates

1938

maker

Winn, Susan

ID Number

TE.T08266

catalog number

T08266

accession number

148588

Data Source

National Museum of American History
Jane Loucks' Medal

Description

Bronze medal won by Jane Loucks in a daguerreotype instance that is 3 7/8" 10 3 ½". Obverse side: AMERICAN INSTITUTE / K. H. Lovett, N.Y.

NEW YORK. Opposite side: AWARDED / TO Miss Jane Loucks,

For the best / Worsted Embroidery, / 1856.

Jane Elizabeth Loucks was built-in in 1835 to John and Desdemonia Marsh Loucks in Sharon, New York. She married Joseph Warren Hastings on February xvi, 1871, in Manhattan. They moved to Illinois and had one daughter, Dena. See her wining piece, Mary Queen of Scots.

Location

Currently non on view

maker

Lovett, George Hampden

ID Number

TE.T11106

itemize number

T11106

accession number

238291

Data Source

National Museum of American History
Here Flora Reigns

Clarification

Subsequently a young lady learned to embroider a sampler, she might attend a female academy to brand a silk embroidered picture. This was a more challenging technique that became popular in the early 1800s. Subjects included classical, biblical, and historical scenes, as well as mourning pictures.

This oval embroidery shows a young adult female draping a garland of roses over a monument whose front bears the legend, "Hither FLORA REIGNS" printed on a glued oval of paper. The monument is embellished with flakes of mica. In the foreground are low-growing plants, some of them surrounded past areas of seed-stitching characteristic of embroidery done at Abby Wright'due south school in South Hadley, Massachusetts. To the left, behind a alpine tree, is a painted town com¬posed of white buildings with red or black roofs and doors (another typical motif of this school). The embroidered oval is edged by 3 rows of silver wire twisted to brand a square band. Across this band the border is embroidered with a garland of roses beyond the top, and a garland of lilies, tulips, and daisies across the bottom and up the sides. In the lower correct corner, beyond all of the embroidery, is a very faint inscription (in ink?): "Almira D." The motion-picture show is stitched on an ivory twilled-silk footing with silk thread. The stitches used are satin, long and short, seed, stem, straight, French knot, and couching.

This embroidery was not done in South Hadley at Abby Wright's schoolhouse, but in Claremont, New Hampshire, with the teacher Sophia Goodrich. Sophia was a half sis to Abby Wright and attended Abby's schoolhouse in South Hadley, Massachusetts in 1804. In November 1809, she returned to take over the school. "Here Flora Reigns" is from a verse form entitled "Burbage" written by English poet Frances Greensted and published in 1796.

Almira Dexter was built-in October vi, 1794, to David and Parnel Strobridge Dexter in Claremont, New Hampshire. Almira married Moses Wheeler in about 1831, as his 2d wife. She died April 5, 1858. (See her sis Lucy'southward embroidery).

For more data well-nigh this embroidery come across Piecework, March/April 2007, "Three American Schoolgirl Silk Embroideries from the Smithsonian" by Sheryl De Jong.

Location

Currently not on view

date fabricated

1809

sister of maker

Dexter, Lucy

maker

Dexter, Almira

ID Number

TE.T19365

catalog number

T19365

accession number

261195

Data Source

National Museum of American History
Parker and Bullard Memorial

Description

After a young lady learned to embroider a sampler, she might nourish a female academy to make a silk embroidered picture. This was a more challenging technique that became popular in the early 1800s. Subjects included classical, biblical, and historical scenes, as well equally mourning pictures. The death of George Washington gave impetus to this new fad of the mourning pic, which came to include an array of plinth, urn, mourners, and copse in a garden setting.

This mourning picture was expertly embroidered by Mary Parker. In the center is a plinth with an urn on top. The inscription reads: "Sacred / To / The Memory of / Mrs. Hannah Parker. Obt / Apr 14th 1813. Aged 50. / Mrs. Sarah Bullard. Obt. / July 13th 1813. Aged 27."

To the correct side of the plinth is a weeping woman, leaning with her correct elbow on the plinth. She is dressed in a gown of the menstruation, and a braid encircles her softly curled hair. Two large willow trees overhang the plinth and the woman, and dominate the picture show. The ground cloth is silk satin. The stitches are French knots, long and short, encroaching satin, split, lazy daisy, and concatenation.

This embroidery includes the typical objects constitute in mourning embroideries: a garden, weeping willow copse, a mourning woman, and an urn on a plinth. The willow tree is a symbol of mourning and sorrow, too as a tree that drains the ground of h2o, thereby keeping the site dry.

Hannah Gilson was born May 26, 1764, to Samuel and Elizabeth Shed Gilson in Pepperell, MA. She married Lemuel Parker November 13, 1783, and died Apr xiii, 1813. Daughter Sarah (Sally) Parker, built-in 1786, married John Bullard in 1808 in Pepperell, Massachusetts. Daughter Mary (Polly) Parker was built-in March 18, 1792.

Location

Currently not on view

maker

Parker, Mary

ID Number

TE.E388174

catalog number

E388174

accretion number

182022

Information Source

National Museum of American History
Mary Queen of Scots, Mourning the Dying Douglas at the Boxing of Langside

Description

By the 1840s a new technique [in the field] of needlepoint known as Berlin wool work was the rage. Information technology arose in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century. New dyes became available and brightly colored wools could be worked in tent stitch on canvas. The patterns were painted by hand on "point paper," which today would be called graph paper. Jane's slice is an example of this technique.

A large rectangular composition shows Mary, Queen of Scots, kneeling over Douglas, who lies mortally wounded on the ground. A riderless horse stands nearby, probably Douglas'due south. All in clothing of the flow. The warriors clothing armor and bear lances. One has a banner. The faces and hands are done in petit point. The picture is worked on penelope canvas basis, 14/28 threads per inch, with Berlin wool in tent/half cross sew.

The title of this piece is Mary Queen of Scots, Mourning over the Dying Douglas at the Boxing of Langside. It is based on a painting by Charles Landseer (1799-1879). Nevertheless, Douglas did not die at that boxing. Charles Landseer based many of his paintings on the novels of Sir Walter Scott, and in his volume entitled The Abbot, Douglas does die at the Battle of Langside. Scott was writing historical fiction and so he could have Douglas die whenever and wherever he wanted him to.

In 1856 Jane entered this piece in the American Institute Fair in New York Urban center where it was awarded the bronze medal (which was first prize for worsted work.) (See motion-picture show of her medal.)

Jane Elizabeth Loucks was built-in in 1835 to John and Desdemonia Marsh Loucks in Sharon, New York. She married Joseph Warren Hastings on February 16, 1871, in Manhattan. They moved to Illinois and had one daughter, Dena. Come across her other pieces; The Ascension of Jesus and The Offer of Isaac.

Location

Currently not on view

associated date

1961

maker

Loucks, Jane Elizabeth

ID Number

TE.T11103.01

catalog number

T11103

accession number

238291

Information Source

National Museum of American History
Watercolor on silk, "Liberty"

Description

After a immature lady learned to embroider a sampler, she might attend a female person academy to brand a silk embroidered picture. This was a more challenging technique that became popular in the early 1800s. Subjects included classical, biblical, and historical scenes, too as mourning pictures.

This oval flick of Liberty is a watercolor on silk. (Not embroidered.) The only needlework involved was the attaching of the purl and spangles. Liberty'south dress and hairdo are Empire mode. In her correct hand is a staff on which flies the American flag, with eighteen stripes, ix bluish and ix white and 16 stars. A hat-like object atop of the flag staff possibly represents the "liberty cap." In her left hand Liberty holds a cornucopia upside down with pears, cherries, grapes, apples, peaches, and melons spilling out. To the left in the background is the boondocks of South Hadley, Massachusetts, with churches, houses, and trees. In the right background are clouds and mountains that may exist symbolic of the vastness of the country. The oval picture of Liberty is framed by ii rows of purl with 2 rows of spangles in between. The outer edge is of flowers, vines, and ribbon bows. An outside border is the same purl and spangles as the inner border, between which is the flower border. It is worked on ivory silk faille.

A cap was awarded to aboriginal Roman freed slaves and it became the symbol of liberty to Americans during the Revolutionary War menses. The upended cornucopia means prosperity, or in America, the land of plenty. The depiction of the boondocks is found on other embroideries stitched at Abby Wright's schoolhouse in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Location

Currently not on view

date fabricated

ca. 1800

ID Number

TE.T19322

catalog number

T19322

accession number

256396

Information Source

National Museum of American History
George Washington

Clarification

By the 1840s a new technique [in the field] of needlepoint known as Berlin wool work was the rage. It arose in Germany at the start of the 19th century. New dyes became available and brightly colored wools could be worked in tent stitch on sheet. The patterns were painted past manus on "point paper," which today would be chosen graph paper. Some of the patterns were copies of famous paintings.

This large Berlin wool work pic of George Washington is based on an original painting by Gilbert Stuart. The stitches used are one-half cross stitch and tent stitch with the face and hands worked in petit point. Information technology is framed in a gold-leafed wooden frame with applied gold leaf corner decorations and an American eagle at the center of the meridian. The glass has a reverse-painted black mat with the embroiderer'due south proper noun, school, and engagement and the subject field of the motion picture in gold foliage beyond the lesser: "ELIZA J McCLENAHAN WASHINGTON St. JOHN'S ACADEMY." 1871.

The painting contains many symbols. The wearing apparel sword instead of a boxing sword indicates a democratic grade of government, and the pen and paper on the table signify the dominion of police force. The leg of the table is shaped like a fasces which is an ancient Roman symbol of power and authority.

Eliza was born November 1854, in Washington, District of Columbia, to James and Margaret Mc Clenahan. Her parents came to the U.s.a. from County Galway, Ireland, in a sailboat that took three weeks. Eliza was the oldest of five daughters and i son. She attended St. John's University on Valley St. in Baltimore and studied sail work and painting. Eliza taught school in Baltimore until her marriage to Michael J. Hook in 1882. They had five children: James, Robert, Margaret and Mary (twins), and Regina. Eliza died in July 1936.

Location

Currently non on view

date made

1871

maker

McClenahan, Eliza J.

ID Number

TE.T15672

catalog number

T15672

accession number

297199

Data Source

National Museum of American History
Printwork

Clarification

This small rectangular piece has a "printwork" embroidered picture of a rural scene in an oval shape. It could be English language or American, done in the early 19th century. A stately home, a adult female and child, 3 deer, and a dog are pictured. Ane large tree, and smaller trees in the background, can be seen. The ground is ivory silk satin backed with linen and the threads are silk. The stitches are back, seed, and straight.

"Printwork" is embroidery done in very minor blackness stitches, duplicating an engraving.

Location

Currently not on view

ID Number

TE.E392922

catalog number

E392922

accession number

214358

Data Source

National Museum of American History