Embroidered Pictures
In the early 1800s, silk-embroidered pictures became a popular form of needlework in America, and young women could learn this challenging needlework technique at specialized academies. (In this case, needlework can be defined as 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 often show relatives or friends grieving before a monument dedicated to a lost loved one.
Canvas work, which today is known as needlepoint, was a form of embroidery that was also used to create pictures. It was done by young women in specialized academies as well as by adults. The earliest piece in the Textile Collection was done by Mary Williams in 1744 and the latest in 1935 by Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt II.
There are approximately 50 embroidered pictures in the Textile Collection.
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Parker and Bullard 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, which came to include an assortment of plinth, urn, mourners, and trees 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 / April 14th 1813. Aged 50. / Mrs. Sarah Bullard. Obt. / July 13th 1813. Aged 27."
- To the right side of the plinth is a weeping woman, leaning with her right elbow on the plinth. She is dressed in a gown of the period, and a braid encircles her softly curled hair. Two large willow trees overhang the plinth and the woman, and dominate the picture. The ground fabric is silk satin. The stitches are French knots, long and short, encroaching satin, split, lazy daisy, and chain.
- This embroidery includes the typical objects found in mourning embroideries: a garden, weeping willow trees, a mourning woman, 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.
- 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 April 13, 1813. Daughter Sarah (Sally) Parker, born 1786, married John Bullard in 1808 in Pepperell, Massachusetts. Daughter Mary (Polly) Parker was born March 18, 1792.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Parker, Mary
- ID Number
- TE.E388174
- catalog number
- E388174
- 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
-
Watercolor on silk, "Liberty"
- 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 picture of Liberty is a watercolor on silk. (Not embroidered.) The only needlework involved was the attaching of the purl and spangles. Liberty's dress and hairdo are Empire style. In her right hand is a staff on which flies the American flag, with 18 stripes, nine blue and nine white and sixteen 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 town of South Hadley, Massachusetts, with churches, houses, and trees. In the right background are clouds and mountains that may be symbolic of the vastness of the country. The oval picture of Liberty is framed by two rows of purl with two rows of spangles in between. The outer border 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 ancient Roman freed slaves and it became the symbol of liberty to Americans during the Revolutionary War period. The upended cornucopia means prosperity, or in America, the land of plenty. The depiction of the town is found on other embroideries stitched at Abby Wright’s school in South Hadley, Massachusetts.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca. 1800
- ID Number
- TE.T19322
- catalog number
- T19322
- accession number
- 256396
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
These Are My Jewels
- 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.
- 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 child, who is admiring a brooch, and gestures toward her other two children - a boy carrying a scroll on which the letters “ABC” are visible, and a slightly older girl carrying a slate. The heads, arms, legs, and feet of the figures, the background sky, and the bushes are painted. Below the picture, embroidered in black silk stem stitch, is the inscription, "THESE ARE MY JEWELS." It has a glass mat reverse-painted white with a 5/8" gold, black, and violet geometric band. At the lower edge, in gold are the words, "WROUGHT by LYDIA BOWLES AUSTIN at MRS. SAUNDERS & MISS BEACH'S ACADEMY." 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 title of the embroidery is taken from a Roman legend which tells of Cornelia, with her children, visiting a wealthy Roman lady who proudly displays her collection of jewelry and then asks to see Cornelia's jewelry. To this Cornelia replies "These are my jewels," indicating her children. The picture is a copy of an engraving by Bartolozzi, entitled "Cornelia Mother of the Gracchi" which was published in London in 1788, copied from a painting by 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 name of the embroiderer as well as the name of the school, which has made 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 18, 1824. Her father was a baker.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Austin, Lydia Bowles
- ID Number
- 1996.0125.01
- catalog number
- 1996.0125.01
- accession number
- 1996.0125
- 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
-
The Ascension
- 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.
- 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
- catalog number
- T11104
- accession number
- 238291
- 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
-
Mourning Picture
- Description
- A mourning picture embroidered by Susan Winn, about 1816, in Lititz, PA, and dedicated to her sister, Caroline, who died in 1806 as an infant. The circular embroidered picture is surrounded by a band of couched chenille decorated with gold spangles. It shows a woman, two girls, and a boy 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 book on which is printed "Ble--ed are the Dead that die in the L---." Printed in blue ink on the front of the plinth is "Sacred to the Memory / of my dear Sister / CAROLINE WINN. / Sweet be Thy sepulchral rest / Sister dear! supremely blest! / May the ties which us unite / Be renew'd in realms of light! / Erected by Susan Winn." In a gilded wood frame, it measures 25" x 25", and its black mat is reverse-painted on the glass. The ground is twill-weave ivory silk, and the stitches are satin, long and short, stem, and couching.
- Susan was born October 18, 1801, to John and Susanna Winn in Baltimore, Maryland. Her father 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 one. For more about this embroidery and other schoolgirl needlework, see Girlhood Embroidery, American Samplers & Pictorial Needlework by Betty Ring (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993) and The "Ornamental Branches," Needlework and Arts from the Lititz Moravian Girls' School Between 1800 and 1865 by Patricia T. Herr (Lancaster, PA: The Heritage Center Museum of Lancaster County, 1996).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date 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
-
Peebbles and Stevenson 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. It included an assortment of plinth, urn, mourners, and trees in a garden setting.
- This oval embroidered mourning picture on a rectangular silk ground, was created in memory of Mrs. Abigail Peebbles and Margaret Stevenson. It shows an urn on a plinth, with angel face and wings on each side of the urn and the inscription: “NOT / LOST BUT / GONE / BEFORE.” The inscription on the plinth is “To the memory / of / Abigail Peebbles / obit Feby 9t 1798 AE 26 / and / Margaret Stevenson / Obit July 24th 1797 AE 3." To the left of the urn is a large weeping willow tree whose top bends over and behind the urn. To the right of the urn is a female figure with a sunburst on the bodice of her flowing gown. The ground fabric is ivory silk satin, backed with fine linen. The stitches are encroaching satin, daisy loop, outline, straight, back, and long and short.
- This embroidery includes the typical objects found in mourning embroideries: angels, weeping willow trees, and an urn on a plinth. The female figure may represent virtue and the sun on her bosom would indicate that virtue is cherished by the “natural dictates of conscience” according to Thomas Sheraton’s Cabinet Dictionary, 1803.
- Meisa (Mary) Stevenson was born July 26, 1784, and on June 20, 1808, she married Kimball Washburn (1784-1825). Mary died October 5, 1829. Abigail and Margaret were probably Meisa Stevenson’s sisters and the embroidery was worked in Maine. The piece descended through the family of George Kneeland Washburn, one of their eight children.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Stevenson, Meisa (Mary)
- ID Number
- TE.T11539
- catalog number
- T11539
- accession number
- 219565
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Sea Beast
- Description
- In the 20th century, women’s hobbies included embroidery techniques such as needlepoint and crewel.
- This rectangular canvas work depicts a "Sea Beast." Thirty-seven kneeling sea creatures with fishlike tails are on the shore, with a three-spired pavilion with sea horse banners on each spire. There is a sea beast's head and two more sections of his serpent-like body rising from the waters. At the top upper right are the initials EBR 1935. The ground is cotton canvas. The threads are tapestry wool in shades of brown from beige to chocolate and the stitches are half cross and tent.
- According to a family member, “Sea Beast” is based upon a painting made by a friend of Eleanor’s who was a medium.
- Eleanor Butler Alexander was born on December 26, 1888, in New York City to Henry and Grace Green Alexander. She married Theodore Roosevelt II on June 20, 1910. They had four children: Grace, Theodore III, Cornelius V. S., and Quentin. She died on May 29, 1960, in Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1935
- maker
- Roosevelt, Eleanor Butler Alexander
- ID Number
- TE.T13347.01
- accession number
- 252238
- catalog number
- T13347
- 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
-
Plenty
- 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 piece features an oval picture entitled, "Plenty." A female figure, dressed in a Federal period gown, carries an upright cornucopia filled with flowers, cradled in her left arm and hand. Her right hand displays a bouquet of flowers. A reverse-painted black glass mat displays the word "Plenty” in a scroll at the bottom. In another scroll are the words "Done by Sally Baxter, Jan 1, 1802." The picture is worked on an ivory silk satin ground fabric with silk thread. The stitches used are encroaching satin, straight, French knots, laid, back, and split.
- A cornucopia is defined as a horn of plenty and thus the title “Plenty.”
- Sally Baxter was born March 26, 1789, to Taylor and Sarah Crowell Baxter of Yarmouth, Massachusetts. She married Obadiah Abbey on February 27, 1808. He died in 1822 and she died on February 5, 1872.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1802
- maker
- Baxter, Sally
- ID Number
- TE.E392913
- catalog number
- E392913
- accession number
- 214358
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Printwork
- Description
- This small rectangular piece has a “printwork” embroidered picture of a rural scene in an oval shape. It could be English or American, done in the early 19th century. A stately home, a woman and child, three deer, and a dog are pictured. One 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 small black 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
-
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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1870
- maker
- Gleason, Eliza
- ID Number
- TE.T17202.01
- accession number
- 316362
- catalog number
- T17202
- 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," 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- 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
-
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
-
Lady Elizabeth Grey Petitioning King Edward IV
- 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 expertly stitched large chenille work picture represents Lady Elizabeth Grey petitioning King Edward IV for the return of her husband’s land, following Edward’s victory over the Lancasterians in 1461, in which Lord Grey 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 hand is held by King Edward. On the left are two young men attendants, one holding a staff and dressed in the period of the event (1460s) as is King Edward. On the right are three women attendants dressed, as is Lady Elizabeth, in costumes of the period in which the embroidery was done, 1815. It is assumed the children’s mother is Lady Elizabeth Grey. Edward IV and Lady Elizabeth were later 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 gold silk satin, and the threads are silk chenille, silk floss, and metal. The stitches are encroaching satin, laid chenille 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 event by Angelica Kauffmann.
- Elizabeth Cassel was born September 12, 1800, in Marietta, Pennsylvania, to Henry and Catherine Neff Cassel. She died unmarried in 1891. This piece of embroidery was considered very important to the family and Daniel Cassel in his book A Genealogical History of the Cassel Family in American (Norristown, Pennsylvania: Morgan R. Wills, 1896) mentions it along with the family genealogy. It was given to the National Museum of American History by a descendant. 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
- 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
-
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
-
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
-
The Offering of Isaac
- 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 large rectangular canvas work piece depicts the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. The biblical account is found in Genesis 22:1-14. Abraham is standing clothed in flowing robes girded at the waist, with a dagger hanging at his left side. He gestures toward the sky with his left hand, and his right hand is over Isaac’s face. A lamb is in the bushes at the right side of the picture and smoke is coming from a brazier in the left corner. The picture is worked on penelope canvas ground, 9/18 threads per inch, with Berlin wool in cross stitch. The faces, hands, and feet are done in petit point.
- 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, New York. They moved to Illinois and had one daughter, Dena. See her other pieces; Mary Queen of Scots and The Ascension of Jesus.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- associated date
- 1961
- maker
- Loucks, Jane Elizabeth
- ID Number
- TE.T11105
- catalog number
- T11105
- accession number
- 238291
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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