With Needle and Brush

SILK EMBROIDERIES From the 1790s through the 1830s, needleworks that combined embroidery and watercolor on silk were the height of fashion at female academies. Classical, historical, and biblical scenes adapted from print sources were stitched on silk, with faces and backgrounds painted in by the student, or sometimes by the teacher or a professional artist. After the death of George Washington and the outpouring of grief, memorials gained in popularity, so much so that often the monument would be left blank to be filled in at a later date. Teachers often created their own designs that were copied and can give attribution to a body of work from a particular school. In their quest to enhance their skills and attempt new ones, young ladies sometimes attended more than one school, traveling great distances to do so. Jael Whitcomb (1818–?) Needlework, Fitzwilliam, N.H., 1828 Silk, paper, and ink on fine linen; 11⅝ x 15 inches Private collection The branches of a feathery tree float protectively over the memorial by Jael Whitcomb of Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, stitched and hand lettered to honor two of her siblings in 1828. The unusual design was wrought under the tutelage of her teacher Chestina Bowker, who later homesteaded in Kansas Territory with her husband and five children. This needlework is unique among those worked and instructed by females in the Connecticut River Valley. Mary Cheney (1781–1813) Needlework, Hartford, Conn., 1793 Silk and metallic thread on silk; 18¼ x 16½ inches Private collection Mary Cheney stitched the earliest known embroidery from the Misses Pattens’ school in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1793. Family coats of arms were fashionable embroidery achievements for the socially elite in mid-eighteenth-century Boston and in late-eighteenth- and early- nineteenth-century Hartford. Coats of arms worked at Misses Pattens’ school incorporated a padded bird holding bow-tied floral garlands that typically topped the needlework. Floral swags graced the bottom while the family arms and banner were dramatically centered.