This is a cutout silhouette portrait of John Brown Copp (b. 1779) done during the early 19th century. Silhouette portraits became popular during the late 18th and early 19th century due to their affordability compared to the time and expense of an oil painting.
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
This framed watercolor of the Samuel and Dolley Copp’s family tree hung in the Copp family home in Stonington, Connecticut during the second half of the 18th century. The family tree is depicted as two intertwined branches sprouting from two overlapping hearts on a blue hill or base at bottom center. The names, birthdates and marriage date of parents Samuel Copp and Dolley Brown are in bottom segment of the tree. The names and birthdates of nine children (Sarah, Dolley, Jonathan, Betsey, Mary, John Brown, Esther, Nancy, and Samuel) are arranged above in three rows of three ovals suspended from flowering branches. The death date of Betsey is also given. Signed at bottom right by John Brown Copp (b. 1779), sixth oldest of the Copp children.
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Cut and pasted silhouette of Mary Copp (b. 1777) is marked on the back with "Cut with scissors By MASTER HUBARD without drawing or cutting machine.” Master Hubard was William James Hubard, a popular British artist who did silhouettes of the Duchess of Kent and Princess Victoria before immigrating to the United States.
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
This is a silhouette portrait of John Brown Copp (b. 1779) completed around 1830. The silhouette was is signed “Syracuse, New York on Tuesday 14 September 1830 by Master Hankes.” Master Hankes likely refers to Jarvis (sometimes spelled Jervis) Hankes, who made silhouettes of John Quincy Adams's family in 1829.
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Three block alphabets; two alphabets colored in pairs, one all black; no "J"; numbers 1 through 0. Simple geometric crossbands framed by flowering vine and rose bushes. At base of sampler, centered tree flanked by two framed inscriptions, with tulips and strawberries. Single row of cross stitch forms border on all four sides. Silk embroidery thread on linen ground. STITCHES: cross, petit point, Algerian eye, rice, queen. THREAD COUNT: warp 34, weft 38/in.
Inscriptions:
"Better it is to be of an humble Spi rit with the low ly than to divide the Spoil with the proud"
"Esther Copp her Sampler made in the eleventh year of her age august AD 1765"
Background:
Jonathan Copp was born on June 12, 1694, and married Mrs. Sarah (Dennis) Hobart as his second wife on June 30, 1742, in Stonington, Connecticut. Their daughter Esther was born on October 23, 1754, in New London, Connecticut, and she never married. She died September 21, 1829. (See sampler by Phebe Esther Copp, her grandniece. A tree, rose bush, and one text are the same on both samplers.) Esther's sampler is part of an extensive collection of 18th- and 19th- century household textiles, costume items, furniture, and other pieces belonging to the Copps, a prosperous but frugal Connecticut family. The collection was donated to the United State National Museum in the 1890s by John Brenton Copp, offering the nation the opportunity to preserve and study the everyday possessions of a New England family.
This is a hollow-cut silhouette portrait of Samuel Copp (b. 1787) done during the early 19th century. In this object, the hollow-cut outline has been pasted onto black paper, prior to being medallioned and framed. The object is an intermediate step between the hollow-cut seen in DL*006559.01 and the completed portrait in DL*006559.02. Silhouette portraits became popular during the late 18th and early 19th century due to their affordability compared to the time and expense of an oil painting.
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
This is a hollow-cut silhouette portrait of Samuel Copp (b. 1787) done during the early 19th century. In this object, the hollow-cut outline has been pasted onto black paper, prior to being medallioned and framed. The object is an intermediate step between the hollow-cut seen in DL*006559.01 and the completed portrait in DL*006559.02. Silhouette portraits became popular during the late 18th and early 19th century due to their affordability compared to the time and expense of an oil painting.
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
This is a framed cutout silhouette portrait of John Brown Copp (b. 1779) done during the early 19th century. Silhouette portraits became popular during the late 18th and early 19th century due to their affordability compared to the time and expense of an oil painted portrait. The silhouette’s hair has been embellished with pen, noticeable when compared to other versions of the silhouette seen in DL*006558.01 and DL*006558.02.
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
This is a fully assembled framed hollow-cut silhouette portrait of Samuel Copp (b. 1787) done during the early 19th century. Silhouette portraits became popular during the late 18th and early 19th century due to their affordability compared to the time and expense of an oil painting. Hollow cut portraits remove the silhouette in white paper, which is then placed on black paper, creating the image. An example of a hollow-cut without black background can be seen in DL*006559.01.
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
This is a cutout silhouette portrait of John Brown Copp (b. 1779) done during the early 19th century. Silhouette portraits became popular during the late 18th and early 19th century due to their affordability compared to the time and expense of an oil painted portrait.
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
This is just the hollow-cut portion of a silhouette portrait of Samuel Copp (b. 1787) done during the early 19th century. Silhouette portraits became popular during the late 18th and early 19th century due to their affordability compared to the time and expense of an oil painting.
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
This indigo wool quilt is one of three late-eighteenth-and-early nineteenth-century quilts that were donated in the 1890s by John Brenton Copp of Stonington, Connecticut. All are part of an extensive gift of household textiles, costume items, furniture, and other objects that belonged to his family from 1750 to 1850. The Copp Collection continues to provide insights into New England family life of that period.
Whole cloth quilts were most popular between 1775 and 1840, although before 1800 they were relatively rare and expensive. This eighteenth-century example from the Copp family is a glazed indigo wool quilt. The fabric was dyed blue with indigo, one of the oldest dyes used for textiles. Glazing, a process involving the use of a hot press on wool fabric, resulted in a smooth, lustrous surface. The lining, a butternut-colored wool, apparently was made from two different blankets.
It is quilted with a popular motif of the period, a large pineapple, using blue wool thread, 7 stitches per inch. A quilted flowering vine extends from a basket at the bottom edge of the quilt and frames the pineapple. A family member, John Brown Copp (b. 1779), was known to have drawn designs for white counterpanes for the young ladies in the Stonington area. The quilting pattern on this indigo wool quilt is similar to the embroidery pattern of a white counterpane, from about 1800, which also belonged to the Copp family.
An analysis of the household textile collection donated by John Brenton Copp can be found in the Copp Family Textiles by Grace Rogers Cooper (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1971). In the book the author summarizes the family background. “The first Copp to reach America was William, a 26-year-old London shoemaker who in 1635 set out for the Massachusetts Colony on the good ship Blessing. He landed east of Boston and became the first owner of Copp’s Hill in north Boston . . . . William’s son Jonathan established the Connecticut branch of the family around Stonington later in the seventeenth century. Many of his male descendents gained comfortable prosperity as merchants and businessmen, while their wives and daughters led full lives as mothers of the large families in which education and refinement were encouraged . . . . The long succession of Jonathans, Samuels, Catherines, Esters, Marys, and Sarahs makes it rather difficult to set in order the generations and their contributions to the collection.” The exact maker of this indigo wool quilt is unidentified, but it was probably made by one or more members of the Copp household.
Mary Maphis Copp pieced this cotton quilt in the mid-19th century. The center panel consists of alternating “Nine-patch” and plain white 6" blocks. It is framed by a border of 24 blocks in the“Sunflower” or “Blazing Star” pattern.
The sunflowers are unusual in that they have nineteen petals. The quilting patterns of outline, double-line diagonal grid, and parallel lines enhance the design. There is no separate binding; instead the back was brought to the front and whipstitched. The quilt is a distinctive combination of a simple pattern in the center panel with a more complicated pattern in the border blocks.
Mary C. [Catherine] Maphis was born September 8, 1831, to John H. and Fannie V. Headley Maphis in Woodstock, Va. She married George W. Copp (1825-1899), a farmer, on November 7, 1850. They settled at Fisher’s Hill, a small village near Strasburg, Va. George and Mary had eight children: Frances (1851-1943), John W. (1852-1917), William H. (b. 1854), David E. (1855-1926), Silas A. ( 1856-1926), Barbara R. (b. 1859), George V. (b. 1862), and Benjamin (b. 1872). According to family information, their home was the site of a Civil War battle. It was burned and all their belongings lost.
Fisher’s Hill was part of Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign September 21-22, 1864. The Confederate Army retreated (casualty estimates of 1,235 to the Union’s 528) and left the Valley open to a “scorched earth” invasion in which dwellings and other buildings were burnt from Staunton to Strasburg, Virginia.
The Copp family eventually relocated to Strasburg. Mary died on February 11, 1886. She is buried in the Strasburg Presbyterian Church Cemetery. The quilt was donated to the National Museum by her granddaughter Mrs. Irene Copp Pifer, the daughter of Mary’s son, John W. Copp.
This quilt is one of three late-eighteenth-and-early-nineteenth-century quilts that were donated in the 1890s by John Brenton Copp of Stonington, Connecticut. All are a part of an extensive gift of household textiles, costume items, furniture, and other objects that belonged to his family from 1750 to 1850. The Copp Collection continues to provide insights into New England family life of that period.
The pieced blocks on this quilt, a variation of the “Nine-patch” pattern, are each made of one of nine different block-printed cottons. These are symmetrically arranged according to the particular print, and alternate with plain white blocks. The quilting pattern consists of parallel diagonal lines on the pieced blocks contrasting with 1½-inch shells on the white blocks, all quilted at 7 stitches per inch.
An analysis of the household textile collection donated by John Brenton Copp can be found in the Copp Family Textiles by Grace Rogers Cooper (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1971). In the book the author summarizes the family background. “The first Copp to reach America was William, a 26-year-old London shoemaker who in 1635 set out for the Massachusetts Colony on the good ship Blessing. He landed east of Boston and became the first owner of Copp’s Hill in north Boston . . . . William’s son Jonathan established the Connecticut branch of the family around Stonington later in the seventeenth century. Many of his male descendents gained comfortable prosperity as merchants and businessmen, while their wives and daughters led full lives as mothers of the large families in which education and refinement were encouraged . . . . The long succession of Jonathans, Samuels, Catherines, Esters, Marys, and Sarahs makes it rather difficult to set in order the generations and their contributions to the collection.” The exact maker of this “Nine-patch” quilt is unidentified, but it was probably made by one or more members of the Copp household.
This pieced-work example is one of three late-eighteenth-and-early nineteenth-century quilts that were donated in the 1890s by John Brenton Copp of Stonington, Connecticut. All are a part of an extensive gift of household textiles, costume items, furniture and other objects that belonged to his family from 1750 to 1850. The Copp Collection continues to provide insights into New England family life of that period.
The arrangement of the pattern of this quilt is one found frequently in eighteenth-century and early-nineteenth-century quilts, a succession of borders framing a center panel of pieced work. A view of the pieced center of this quilt seen from the right side, suggests the shape of a tree, and the printed fabrics repeat in mirror fashion in each row about ninety percent of the time. Perhaps the center was erroneously placed in this direction, or it was meant to be viewed from the bedside. The lining is pieced of much-mended linen and cotton fabrics that originally were probably sheets. On one piece, the initials “HV” are cross-stitched in tan silk thread. It is quilted in an overall herringbone pattern, 5 or 6 stitches per inch.
The clothing and furnishing fabrics used in the quilt top span a period of about forty years. This, and the fact that the Copp family was in the dry goods business, may explain why the quilt includes more than one hundred and fifty different printed, woven-patterned, and plain fabrics of cotton, linen and silk. Although the array of fabrics is extravagant, economy is evident in the use of even the smallest scraps. Many blocks in the quilt pattern are composed of several smaller, irregularly shaped pieces. Two dresses, in the Copp Collection, one from about 1800 and the other from about 1815, are made of fabrics that appear in the quilt.
An analysis of the household textile collection donated by John Brenton Copp can be found in the Copp Family Textiles by Grace Rogers Cooper (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1971). In the book the author summarizes the family background. “The first Copp to reach America was William, a 26-year-old London shoemaker who in 1635 set out for the Massachusetts Colony on the good ship Blessing. He landed east of Boston and became the first owner of Copp’s Hill in north Boston . . . . William’s son Jonathan established the Connecticut branch of the family around Stonington later in the seventeenth century. Many of his male descendents gained comfortable prosperity as merchants and businessmen, while their wives and daughters led full lives as mothers of the large families in which education and refinement were encouraged . . . . The long succession of Jonathans, Samuels, Catherines, Esters, Marys, and Sarahs makes it rather difficult to set in order the generations and their contributions to the collection.” The exact maker of this quilt is unidentified, but it was probably made by one or more members of the Copp household.
This single-woven cotton and wool overshot coverlet was made in the early 19th century. It is part of the Copp Collection of costume and household textiles given to the Museum in the late 19th century. The coverlet was woven in two sections, which were sewn together. The patterns used are known as “Four Roses” and “Table,” and the coverlet is finished with a hand-woven wool fringe two and one-half inches deep. The center seam, fringe, and hems are all sewn with cotton thread. The weaver and the owner remain unknown. The Copps first arrived in America in 1635. By the 18th century, the descendents of the first Copps were living in Stonington, Connecticut, working as merchants and businessmen. They imported textiles for sale, and like other colonists, they engaged in some home production as well.
This hand woven overshot coverlet is part of the Copp Collection which was given to the Museum in the late 19th century. The pattern is similar to "White Mountian" or "Granite State' and woven with linen and wool yarn. The coverlet is woven in two sections with each section being 42 3/4 inches wide. The two sections are joined together with linen sewing thread. The coverlet was probably made in the 18th century. The weaver is unknown.
A member of the Copp family of Stonington, Connecticut wove this green, red, and white, overshot coverlet in a “Single Chariot Wheel” pattern. The coverlet was constructed of two panels woven as one length and features an applied wool fringe on three sides.
This red and white, cotton and wool, overshot coverlet comes from the Copp Family collection of Stonington, Connecticut and was woven sometime between 1790 and 1800. The pattern is a variation of the “Monk’s Belt” pattern most commonly known as “Braddock’s Defeat.” The coverlet is constructed of a natural linen warp, natural cotton weft, and madder-dyed, red wool supplementary weft yarnsThe coverlet is composed of three panels woven as one length, cut, and seamed with a 2-ply, S-twist, Z-spun, linen thread. This a 2.75 inch looped fringe is attached to three sides. The coverlet is a rare example of early imported spun cotton threads being used in weaving. The cotton yarns were not yet strong enough for use as warp threads, but here serve as the ground cloth weft threads.