With Needle and Brush: Schoolgirl Embroidery from the Connecticut River Valley, 1740–1840

Foreword

vii Although little remembered today, before its celebrated role as the home of the Lyme Art Colony the Florence Griswold House served as a school for girls during the late 1800s. There, Florence Griswold and her sisters taught English, art, history, music, and, according to one advertisement, “the rich and elegant styles of French embroidery, ancient and modern, not elsewhere taught in this country.” Although this chapter of our institution’s history is often overlooked, the Florence Griswold Museum has long had an abiding interest in the material culture of New England and the role that women’s education played in the development of that culture. With Needle and Brush is the first book to investigate the extraordinary embroidery created by girls and young women in the Connecticut River Valley between 1740 and 1840. This region, spanning from northern New Hampshire to Long Island Sound, was one of the most important centers in America for the teaching and production of embroidered pictures by young girls in private academies during the colonial and early national periods. Many will be surprised that their story has not been told in greater detail before. This publication demonstrates the role of the needle arts in women’s education in early America. Among the daughters of prominent families, completing a needlework at a private school was considered a necessary part of preparation for adulthood. Over the course of their education, girls undertook progressively more complex and difficult needlework. Before the age of ten, they began with elementary samplers worked on linen and gradually developed a repertory of stitching techniques. As the culmination of their studies, they executed elaborate samplers, memorials, and silk pictures. Proudly displayed in a family’s home as enticements to potential suitors, these needleworks affirmed a young lady’s mastery of the principles of “politeness”—a concept that encompassed knowledge of religious and literary themes as well as an appreciation for art and music. Although women’s education has often been thought of as limited during this period, these intricate embroideries prove otherwise with their many allusions to art, literature, and religion. Teaching young girls needlework was, in fact, a means of instilling the values of citizenship, faith, and liberty into those who would become the mothers of the first few generations of Americans in the early republic. As a group, much can be gained by studying these needlework pictures for their insight into the lives of young women in early America. Jeffrey Andersen Director, Florence Griswold Museum Foreword ...