Embroidered Pictures

Embroidered image of Roman lady, with her three children, is depicted with a seated Roman matron holding a box of jewels

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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Caroline Winn Memorial Mourning Picture; Susan Winn; ca. 1816

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.
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

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