Embroidered Pictures

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," still on its frame made by Cornelius V. S. Roosevelt. It portrays the "attack scene" from the legend. (see Eleanor Roosevelt’s embroidery of the legend.) The golden cockerel has attacked the Czar, 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 hair, eye and blood drops finished. The remainder of the picture is drawn on the fabric. The picture consists of a circle which included the Czar's head, part of the crown and the cockerel. The ground is linen and the threads are silk and metallic. The stitches are laid and couched, outline, stem, split.; Eleanor Butler Alexander was born 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 III, Cornelius V. 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

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. It 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 piece is an example of this technique.; This rectangular canvas work piece depicts the Ascension of Jesus. The biblical account is found in Acts 1: 9-11. Jesus is the main figure, upper center. He wears robes and there is a halo or nimbus around his head. Two men and one woman on the ground partially cover their eyes, as if blinded by the light. The faces, hands, and feet are done in petit point. The picture is worked on penelope canvas ground, 14/28 threads per inch, with Berlin wool in tent/half cross stitch. 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 Ascension J.E.L." is located in the bottom border.; Jane Elizabeth Loucks was born 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. See her other pieces; Mary Queen of Scots and The Offering of Isaac.
Location: Currently not 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

George Washington

Description: 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 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. Some of the patterns were copies of famous paintings.; This large Berlin wool work picture of George Washington is based on an original painting by Gilbert Stuart. The stitches used are half cross stitch and tent stitch with the face and hands worked in petit point. It is framed in a gold-leafed wooden frame with applied gold leaf corner decorations and an American eagle at the center of the top. The glass has a reverse-painted black mat with the embroiderer's name, school, and date and the subject of the picture in gold leaf across the bottom: "ELIZA J McCLENAHAN WASHINGTON St. JOHN'S ACADEMY." 1871.; The painting contains many symbols. The dress sword instead of a battle sword indicates a democratic form of government, and the pen and paper on the table signify the rule of law. 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 United States from County Galway, Ireland, in a sailboat that took three weeks. Eliza was the oldest of five daughters and one son. She attended St. John’s Academy on Valley St. in Baltimore and studied canvas 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 not 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

Sara Ten Brock's Silk Embroidery

Description: After 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 as mourning pictures.; This rectangular embroidered picture contains an oval vignette within the rectangle of a woman feeding two chickens and four chicks. The woman wears a costume of the period, a long dress, with bands at the bottom of her skirt, somewhat in the Empire style. There is only blank fabric where the hands would be, no embroidery or paint. The original non-embroidered ground fabric in the upper half of the picture has been cut away and replaced at a later time with a newer plain weave silk satin fabric. Because the original face was painted on the discarded ground fabric, the face on the newer fabric is embroidered. It is stitched on an ivory silk satin ground fabric and backed with homespun linen. The threads are wool twist and silk twist. The stitches are French knots, encroaching satin, seed, split, satin, and straight.; This may be the Sara Ten Brock born to John I. and Fitze Miller Ten Brock on March 13, 1786, in Oxford, New York. She married Daniel Loomis (1783-1854) on April 15, 1801. They had ten children and Sara died March 23, 1864, in Oxford, New York.
Location: Currently not on view

ID Number: TE.T19363
catalog number: T19363
accession number: 261195

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Young Man and Woman with Dog

Description: After 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 as mourning pictures.; This rectangular embroidered picture portrays a young man and woman and a dog in a pastoral scene with a floral wreath border around all the edges. The man and woman are in Regency style clothing. The faces, dark curly hair, arms, and hands are painted, as is the sky background. The floral border is elaborate, with much detail. The glass mat, which has been removed, has a reverse one-inch band painted black with a 1/4" gold band around the edges. In the lower band 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, straight, and satin; There is a Sophia Harsen born July 10, 1815, in New York City, 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
catalog number: 1989.0343.01
accession number: 1989.0343

Data 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 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 as mourning pictures.; This pastoral scene shows a young man seated under a tree with a horn slung over his shoulder, and holding a piece of bread (?). Before him stands a young woman carrying a sack, at which a dog is sniffing. The oval scene is surrounded by a single line of stem stitch, 1/4" 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 M. E. & 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, stem, straight, chain, and French knot.; The Sketchley’s school continued at Haerlem Lane in Poughkeepise, NY from 1801 until 1804. The name “M. 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 identify 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 made: 1806-1809

maker: McKay, Margaret

ID Number: 1987.0785.01
catalog number: 1987.0785.01
accession number: 1987.0785

Data Source: National Museum of American History

The Legend of Czar Saltan

Description: In the 20th century, women’s hobbies included embroidery techniques such as needlepoint and crewel.; This very large and impressive embroidered wall hanging depicts “The Legend of Czar Saltan.” The czar sits in an elaborately decorated wooden chair. He wears a jeweled crown on his silvery hair, and his long flowing silvery beard covers a part of an elaborately embroidered robe. This scene is on a balcony overlooking a walled village with onion-domed buildings, some with crosses on top, a lake with an island, and mountains beyond. Across the top of the picture are clouds, and the initials “e b r 1951-53" are embroidered near the right lower corner. The ground is linen twill and the threads are silk floss, wool, and metallic. The stitches are split, satin, long and short, outline, stem, laid and couched, wrapped loop, brick, seed, closed fly, French knots, chain, buttonhole, and herringbone. Glass and plastic jewels are also used.; LEGEND OF CZAR SALTAN; The legend is a well-known Russian fairy tale, and is the same story on which Pushkin based a dramatic poem used in turn by Rimsky-Korsakov for his Le Coq d'Or Suite. (The Golden Cockerel Suite.) In some versions, Czar Saltan is called King Dodon, but in all accounts he was given the Golden Cockerel by his Royal Astrologer. The Czar set the cockerel up in the palace as a weather vane. When danger approached, the cockerel warned the Czar by crowing. Apparently the cockerel does give advance warning of impending danger on several occasions, and eventually the Astrologer claims his payment. Some versions of the legend say that the Czar's wife was promised to the Astrologer, while others say that it was his daughter. In any case, the Czar refused to make good on his promise and when the astrologer demanded his fee, the Czar struck him with his scepter and killed him. At this point, the Golden Cockerel flew down from his perch and pierced the Czar's skull with his beak, killing him.; The wall hanging was worked on a roller embroidery frame built by Cornelius Van S. Roosevelt, son of Eleanor and Theodore Roosevelt II. Cornelius drew the design on the linen in 1937. It took Mrs. Roosevelt many years to assemble all the materials and she didn't begin working on it until 1951. It was during the long interval between 1937 and 1951 that R. H. Macy & Co., in New York, helped run tests on the various metallic threads to see if they would tarnish. Over a period of many years, Mrs. Roosevelt determined which wools and silks were color fast, and these she used to stitch this piece and a companion one.; Eleanor Butler Alexander was born 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 III, Cornelius V. S. and Quentin. She died on May 29, 1960, at Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York.

date made: 1951-1953

maker: Roosevelt, Eleanor Butler Alexander

ID Number: 1990.0656.01
catalog number: 1990.0656.01
accession number: 1990.0656

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Joseph's Dream

Description: After 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 as mourning pictures.; In an oval with a 1/4" silver wire outline is Joseph, with his dog, asleep under a tree near a stream. To the right are wheat-sheaves in a field, three buildings, and three palm trees, with mountains in the distance. In the foreground are low-growing plants, some of them surrounded by areas of seed-stitching characteristic of embroidery done at Abby Wright's school in South Hadley, Massachusetts. The top third of the border is embroidered with a garland of roses and buds. The rest of the border is painted with a vine bearing sweet peas, bleeding hearts, lilies, carnations, and other flowers. The entire ground of the border is painted (watercolor) in a cream color. The picture is embroidered on a white silk ground, and the stitches used are satin, seed, straight, outline, French knot, and couching.; The subject of this embroidery is a story from the Bible found in Genesis 37 and 42. Joseph had a dream that he and his brothers were binding sheaves of grain out in the field. Suddenly his sheaf rose and stood upright, while his brothers’ sheaves gathered around his and bowed down to it. His brothers were very angry with him and sold him to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. Joseph’s dream did come true when later in life he became governor of Egypt. A famine occurred in Canaan and his father Jacob had heard that they had grain in Egypt and sent his brothers to Egypt to buy food. When they got to Egypt they bowed down to Joseph, not realizing he was their brother.; This embroidery was not done in South Hadley at Abby Wright’s school, but in Claremont, New Hampshire, with the teacher Sophia Goodrich. Sophia was a half sister to Abby Wright and attended Abby’s school in South Hadley, Massachusetts in 1804. In November 1809, she returned to take over the school.; Lucy Dexter was born on February 4, 1796, to David and Parnel Strobridge Dexter in Claremont, New Hampshire. Lucy died unmarried on February 17, 1821. (See Almira Dexter’s embroidery.) For more information about this embroidery see Piecework, March/April 2007, “Three American Schoolgirl Silk Embroideries from the Smithsonian” by Sheryl De Jong.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1809

sister of maker: Dexter, Almira
maker: Dexter, Lucy

ID Number: TE.T261195.01
catalog number: T261195.01
accession number: 261195

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Prison Scene

Description: After 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 as mourning pictures.; This embroidered picture depicts a prison scene. The central figure is a uniformed official. He wears a tricorn hat, knee britches, a short blue coat with buttons that seem to have been made by grouping several tiny metal beads, a jabot on his shirt, knee stockings, and shoes. He appears to be receiving a small bag, possibly of money, in his right hand from the woman in the scene. His left hand is held by a girl on her knees, showing gratitude, kissing his hand. She has long wavy hair and a short sleeved belted gown of the period, with a coiled metal 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 two girls hovering. The man has a bandage around his head. He is well dressed in clothes of the period, with a large shawl around his lap and legs. His chains are broken, indicating his release. It appears to be a mother/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 beads. The stitches are satin, encroaching satin, straight, French knots, elongated chain, and laid.; This piece could be English or American. Nothing is known about 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

Liberty Guided by the Wisdom of '76

Description: After 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 as mourning pictures.; This circular embroidery of Liberty, with spear and shield, also depicts a boy and girl looking toward a temple on a distant hilltop, while an eagle carrying a liberty cap and an olive branch flies overhead. Liberty's helmet and shield are worked in gold thread, and there is a painted eye in the center of the shield. She wears a light blue dress striped with violet. The bodice is decorated with a painted gilt face surrounded by gold spangles. The eagle is done in gold paint and there are 17 gold painted stars above it. A glass mat is reverse-painted in black with a 3/4" gold and black sawtooth band around a 17" circular opening. In the upper corners are gilt cornucopias, and in the lower corners, gilt conventionalized flowers. Above the opening are the words “HARRIET M. SALTER,” and below the opening, “LIBERTY GUIDED BY THE WISDOM OF '76.” The picture is stitched on a plain-weave ivory silk ground with silk thread. The stitches used are satin, long and short, French knot, outline, and couching.; The liberty cap is a conical-shaped cap that was worn as a symbol of freedom from tyranny through rebellion during the Revolutionary War. The eagle was a national emblem of victory through the blessings of God, and the eye in the center of the shield is a symbol of the eye of God keeping watch on humankind.; Harriet worked her silk picture c.1807 at the school of Mrs. Lydia Bull Royce in Hartford, Connecticut. Identifying characteristics of this school are the appliquéd garments on the figures and trees with peculiar star-shaped chenille-worked leaves. Harriet’s elder sister, Christian, also worked an embroidered picture at Mrs. Royce's school, c.1805. See page 213 in Girlhood Embroidery, American Samplers & Pictorial Needlework by Betty Ring (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993).; Harriet Salter was the second of nine children born to John and Mary Williams Salter of Mansfield, Connecticut. Born on March 20, 1792, she married Heman Ely as his second wife on August 20, 1828. They moved from Tolland, Connecticut, to Elyria, Ohio, and had one son, Charles Arthur. Harriet died August 6, 1846.
Location: Currently not on view

maker: Salter, Harriet Maria

ID Number: TE.E388175
catalog number: E388175
accession number: 182022

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Mary Queen of Scots, Mourning the Dying Douglas at the Battle of Langside

Description: 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 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 piece 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’s. All in clothing of the period. The warriors wear armor and carry lances. One has a banner. The faces and hands are done in petit point. The picture is worked on penelope canvas ground, 14/28 threads per inch, with Berlin wool in tent/half cross stitch.; The title of this piece is Mary Queen of Scots, Mourning over the Dying Douglas at the Battle of Langside. It is based on a painting by Charles Landseer (1799-1879). However, Douglas did not die at that battle. Charles Landseer based many of his paintings on the novels of Sir Walter Scott, and in his book 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 City where it was awarded the bronze medal (which was first prize for worsted work.) (See picture of her medal.); Jane Elizabeth Loucks was born 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. See her other pieces; The Ascension of Jesus and The Offering 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

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 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 as 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 trees with crossed trunks. On the far right are two poplar trees beyond a small pond. Overhead is an angel with a trumpet and a laurel wreath. The willow tree is a symbol of mourning and sorrow, as well as a tree that drains the ground of water, thereby keeping the site dry. The angel, trumpet, and laurel wreath is an allegorical figure of "fame." The garden is a symbol of the Resurrection and everlasting hope. Designed by Samuel Folwell, it was probably worked at his wife Elizabeth's school for young ladies in Philadelphia. Folwell traveled down the East Coast painting portraits and may have drawn this design for girls to embroider in one of several southern cities; it was a popular design and many examples of this same embroidered composition still exist. In addition, the design was copied by other artists and stitchers, in somewhat less polished versions. This example appears to have been painted (heads, hands, etc.) by Folwell himself. This picture is worked on a plain-weave ivory silk ground with silk embroidery threads. The stitches used are long and short, chain, satin, stem, and French knot.; The embroiderer is unknown.
Location: Currently not on view

ID Number: TE.T19321
catalog number: T19321
accession number: 256396

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 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 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 gold urn, outlined in brown and garlanded with flowers, carries on its marble-simulated silk embroidered pedestal the inked inscription: "Cap.t Isaac / Gorham born / Feb.y 15 . 1747 . died / Aug.t. 13. 1795. aged / 48." The young woman, in a white Regency costume with a brown bow, stands to the right of the urn. Her bonnet is completed in black ink; her features and curls are inked in brown; one arm is outlined in graphite, and the other is barely visible behind a willow branch. The picture is in the original gold leaf frame, and the glass is reverse-painted in black, with gold leaf motifs in each corner and a 1/4" gold rim around the oval mourning picture with the maker's name, "M. GORHAM," at the bottom. It is stitched on a plain weave ivory silk ground with silk embroidery threads. The stitches are seed, lazy daisy, straight, satin, and outline.; This example 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 ground 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 19, 1814. They had eleven 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 W. (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. See her older sister Jemina Gorham’s sampler.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1805

maker: Gorham, Mary

ID Number: 2007.0156.01
accession number: 2007.0156
catalog number: 2007.0156.01

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Here Flora Reigns

Description: After 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 as mourning pictures.; This oval embroidery shows a young woman draping a garland of roses over a monument whose front bears the legend, "HERE 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 by areas of seed-stitching characteristic of embroidery done at Abby Wright's school in South Hadley, Massachusetts. To the left, behind a tall 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 three rows of silver wire twisted to make a square band. Beyond this band the border is embroidered with a garland of roses across the top, and a garland of lilies, tulips, and daisies across the bottom and up the sides. In the lower right corner, beyond all of the embroidery, is a very faint inscription (in ink?): "Almira D." The picture is stitched on an ivory twilled-silk ground 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 school, but in Claremont, New Hampshire, with the teacher Sophia Goodrich. Sophia was a half sister to Abby Wright and attended Abby’s school in South Hadley, Massachusetts in 1804. In November 1809, she returned to take over the school. “Here Flora Reigns” is from a poem entitled “Burbage” written by English poet Frances Greensted and published in 1796.; Almira Dexter was born October 6, 1794, to David and Parnel Strobridge Dexter in Claremont, New Hampshire. Almira married Moses Wheeler in about 1831, as his second wife. She died April 5, 1858. (See her sister Lucy’s embroidery).; For more information about this embroidery see Piecework, March/April 2007, “Three American Schoolgirl Silk Embroideries from the Smithsonian” by Sheryl De Jong.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 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

Joseph Interpreting the Dream of King Pharaoh

Description: 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 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. Some of the patterns were copies of famous paintings.; This large canvas work picture came in an elaborate glazed gold frame with a mat of black paint and gold leaf on the inside of the glass. The inscription across the bottom is “Eliza Gleason, Joseph Interpreting the Dream of King Pharaoh January 1st, 1870.” The original frame was removed since it needed repair, and the work was reframed for exhibit from 1976 to 1981. The ground is cotton canvas and the threads are wool and silk.; According to the biblical story, Pharaoh had a dream that no one could interpret for him. His chief cupbearer then remembered that Joseph had interpreted a dream for him when he was in prison two years earlier. So, Joseph was “brought from the dungeon” and shaved and changed his clothes. He then came before Pharaoh and told him that his dream meant there would be seven years of abundance in the land of Egypt followed by seven years of famine. Joseph recommended that “a discerning and wise man” be put in charge and that food should be collected in the good years and stored for use during the famine. This seemed like a good idea to Pharaoh and Joseph ended up with the job (Genesis 41).; Eliza Gleason was born in February 1839, in Connecticut. She married Robert Gleason ca. 1864 in Brooklyn, New York. She stitched this after she was married. In the 1870 Kings County, New York, census, she has an eight year old and a baby.

date made: 1870

maker: Gleason, Eliza

ID Number: TE.T17202.01
accession number: 316362
catalog number: T17202

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Jane Loucks' Medal

Description: Bronze medal won by Jane Loucks in a daguerreotype case that is 3 7/8” x 3 ½”. Obverse side: AMERICAN INSTITUTE / G. H. Lovett, N.Y.; NEW YORK. Reverse side: AWARDED / TO Miss Jane Loucks,; For the best / Worsted Embroidery, / 1856.; Jane Elizabeth Loucks was born 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. See her wining piece, Mary Queen of Scots.
Location: Currently not on view

maker: Lovett, George Hampden

ID Number: TE.T11106
catalog number: T11106
accession number: 238291

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Faith, Hope, & Charity

Description: 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 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. Some of the patterns were copies of famous paintings.; This rectangular Berlin wool work piece depicts Faith, Hope, and Charity. The three large seated female figures in the center of the work. The one on the left is holding a babe, the one in the center holds a chalice and a book, and the one on the right holds a flower. Three small children are in the center foreground, one holding a parasol and another with a dog. At the bottom is stitched: “EMMA FRANCES FEATHER – 1855.” It is embroidered on cotton canvas that has a warp of 28/in and weft of 24/in. The thread is worsted wool and the stitches are cross and half cross.; 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 flower 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 January 31, 1906. In the Reading, Pennsylvania, directories, she is listed as a vestmaker and Levi is listed as a merchant tailor.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1855

maker: Feather, Emma Frances

ID Number: TE.T15608
catalog number: T15608
accession number: 298622

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Mourning Embroidery

Description: After 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 as 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 square embroidered picture depicts a young girl weeping, kneeling beside a plinth topped by an urn beneath a weeping willow tree. There was once an inscription glued on the plinth, but it is now missing from the oval. The girl is dressed in an ivory and pale gold Empire style dress with lacy edging around the square neck. The embroidered weeping figure, plinth, chenille tree and chenille ground are surrounded by painted water. A gold inscription on a black mat at the bottom says, “Wrought by Sophia W. Childs, Charleston, 1827.” It is stitched on a plain 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 dress would have been the dress of the period and helps to date the picture.; Sophia Wyman Childs married Jeremiah Holmes Kimball (1802-1849) of Woburn, Massachusetts, on February 24, 1828. She died sometime before November 1832, when Jeremiah wed Jerusha Ann Richardson.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1827
associated date: 1964-12

maker: Childs, Sophia Wyman

ID Number: TE.T19319
accession number: 256396
catalog number: T19319

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Charity

Description: After 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 as mourning pictures.; In an oval with couched chenille outline, a woman is followed by a child. She carries an infant and a basket of bread, 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 ground. 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 "Charity," an image engraved by C. Stampa in London, 1802. Charity is one of the three theological virtues and is often represented as a female figure. The eagle was a national emblem of victory through the blessings of God, and is often found on other embroideries done at the Misses Patten’s 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 about 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 January 6, 1879, in Long Meadow, Massachusetts. She attended Deerfield Academy in 1806, but embroidered “Charity” at the Misses Patten’s school in Hartford, Connecticut.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1810

maker: Breck, Rachel

ID Number: TE.E388172
catalog number: E388172
accession number: 182022

Data Source: National Museum of American History

The Queen of Sheba Admiring the Wisdom of Solomon

Description: Canvas work, now called needlepoint, was also taught in schools or learned at home. Mary comes from a Connecticut family that has many surviving pieces of needlework, indicating she may have stitched this piece at home with help from a relative.; This canvas work picture includes five houses and thirty-eight people, using wool and metallic embroidery threads. On the bottom is the inscription, "THE QUEEN OF SHEBA ADMIRING THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON." Solomon and Sheba are centered under a canopied tent decorated with metal threads. At the center along the top edge is the inscription "MARY WILLIAMS 1744," the name worked in metal thread. Although the primary subject is biblical, all the figures are dressed in 18th-century clothing. All of the houses have shingled roofs, pediment windows, and doors on their lower stories.; The biblical story is found in I Kings 10. The Queen of Sheba heard that Solomon, King of Israel, was rich, wise, and religious. She came to Jerusalem to test him with some very hard questions. King Solomon answered all her questions and when she saw his palace and his food, etc. she said “not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard.” I Kings 10:7.; Mary Williams was born to Rev. Solomon and Mary Porter Williams on February 11, 1733, in Lebanon, Connecticut. She married Richard Salter on June 17, 1767, as his second wife. They had three children, Abigail, who died May 31, 1768, age 3 days; a second daughter, also named Abigail, who died May 18, 1770, age 1 mo.; and Elizabeth, who died July 21, 1771, age 3 wks. Mary died November 16, 1793, in Mansfield, Connecticut.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1744

maker: Williams, Mary

ID Number: TE.E388179
catalog number: E388179
accession number: 182022

Data Source: National Museum of American History

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Embroidered Pictures

Attack Scene

Jane Louck's embroidered picture; The Ascension; 1850

George Washington

Sara Ten Brock's Silk Embroidery

Young Man and Woman with Dog

Margaret McKay

The Legend of Czar Saltan

Joseph's Dream

Prison Scene

Liberty Guided by the Wisdom of '76

Mary Queen of Scots, Mourning the Dying Douglas at the Battle of Langside

Memorial to George Washington

Isaac Gorham Memorial

Here Flora Reigns

Joseph Interpreting the Dream of King Pharaoh

Jane Loucks' Medal

Faith, Hope, & Charity

Mourning Embroidery

Charity

The Queen of Sheba Admiring the Wisdom of Solomon

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