Embroidered Pictures

• 

  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

• 

  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.

  date made

  1810

  maker

  Breck, Rachel

  ID Number

  TE.E388172

  catalog number

  E388172

  accession number

  182022

  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

• 

  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

• 

  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

• 

  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

• 

  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

• 

  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

• 

  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

• 

  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

• 

  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

• 

  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

• 

  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

• 

  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

• 

  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

• 

  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

• 

  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

• 

  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.T11105.01

  catalog number

  T11105

  accession number

  238291

  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

• 

  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

Pages