Needlework Picturec. 179417 x 20 1/4 " (43.2 x 51.4 cm)
Frame: 24 3/4 x 27 3/4 x 1 " (62.9 x 70.3 x 2.5 cm)Silk on silkGift of Ralph Esmerian2013.1.4501547303754P1.2001.284Sallie HathawayTextilesThe American Folk Art Museum believes this work to be in the public domain.Inscribed paper attached to back: Cursive hand, pen, and ink: "Work done by/ Mrs. Sallie Hathaway Jenkins/ in the year/ 1787." [written by Adella Potter, descendent in the late 1870s]Sallie Hathaway Needlework PictureSallie Hathaway Needlework PictureSallie Hathaway Needlework PictureUnited StatesUnited StatesNew YorkMassachusettsTextileseMuseum - Collection HighlightsBetty Ring, "Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers & Pictoral Needlework 1650-1850, Volume I, published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1983.From the eighteenth century through the early decades of the nineteenth, a girl from a family of means might strive to attain artistic “accomplishments” in addition to basic sewing skills. Sallie Hathaway was twelve years old when she stitched this appealing embroidery. In 1784 her family moved from Great Barrington, in western Massachusetts to the newly established town of Hudson, New York, where her father became the successful owner of a fleet of ships. It is not known where Sallie was educated during these formative years in Hudson or where she stitched this needlework. The best-known pictorial embroideries on black silk were worked at unidentified schools in Salem, Massachusetts, from the 1740s through the 1770s, and in Boston during the 1750s and 1760s. By framing the needlework on three sides with a Federal swag-and-tassel design, Hathaway has effectively created a stage setting for her needlework tableau, which unfolds in an intimate, personal progression.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Sallie Hathaway Needlework Picture," exhibition label for Jubilation|Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2012.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgSilk on silk embroidery of pastoral scene with woman RS seated on hillock wearing feathered hat, holding bouquet of flowers with young girl standing before her. Man, center, holding bird, two dogs at feet. Urn of flowers LS. Weeping willow behind woman, the whole scene framed by swagged embroidered curtain with flowers.Sallie Hathaway Needlework PictureSallie Hathaway Needlework PictureSallie Hathaway Needlework PictureSallie Hathaway Needlework PictureP1.2001.28417891799 2013 1 45 From the eighteenth century through the early decades of the nineteenth, a girl from a family of means might strive to attain artistic “accomplishments” in addition to basic sewing skills. Sallie Hathaway was twelve years old when she stitched this appealing embroidery. In 1784 her family moved from Great Barrington, in western Massachusetts to the newly established town of Hudson, New York, where her father became the successful owner of a fleet of ships. It is not known where Sallie was educated during these formative years in Hudson or where she stitched this needlework. The best-known pictorial embroideries on black silk were worked at unidentified schools in Salem, Massachusetts, from the 1740s through the 1770s, and in Boston during the 1750s and 1760s. By framing the needlework on three sides with a Federal swag-and-tassel design, Hathaway has effectively created a stage setting for her needlework tableau, which unfolds in an intimate, personal progression.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Sallie Hathaway Needlework Picture," exhibition label for Jubilation|Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2012.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgSilk on silk embroidery of pastoral scene with woman RS seated on hillock wearing feathered hat, holding bouquet of flowers with young girl standing before her. Man, center, holding bird, two dogs at feet. Urn of flowers LS. Weeping willow behind woman, the whole scene framed by swagged embroidered curtain with flowers.