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Guest Curator Article
Telling
Their Stories: 19 th Century Samplers and Silk Needlework
by
Olive Graffam, DAR Museum, Washington DC
“Eclectic”
could well be the term to categorize the DAR
Museum exhibition, Telling Their Stories: 19 th Century
Samplers and Silk Needlework. Opening April 11, 2008 and on
view until August 30, 2008, the exhibition presents American needlework
in many guises while turning attention to nineteenth-century events.
Within the limits of time and gallery space, the museum features
needlework reflective of feminine lives during years of extreme
national and familial change. Whether the related stories concern
the maker, teacher, family, or contemporary events, each has a bit
of information connecting us to our distant past.
Given
by her granddaughter, Caroline Newcomb’s silk printwork represents
not only an early-nineteenth century ideal of feminine ornamental
accomplishments but also the benefits of an expensive education
(Fig.1). However, Caroline’s skills do not disguise death’s reality
as she memorializes grandparents and six brothers and sisters, all
of Dutchess County, New York.
Forty-one
years later and a world away in Iowa, Susannah McClure’s sampler
does not begin to tell the stories of her family’s migration across
the United States, her permanent deafness from scarlet fever, her
life as a teacher, wife and mother in “the silent world” described
by her son (Fig.2). It is through family histories, census records,
church and cemetery records and local, state and national archives
that researchers look for answers about Susannah and others.
More
than eighty pieces of needlework represent diversity not only in
composition and ability, but also in locale and circumstance. The
exhibition also illustrates long-lived designs and verses traversing
the globe and across America, much as the restless populace moved
on. A certain melding of designs was inevitable. Louisa Martha Vanlaw
incorporated familiar Quaker motifs with other atypical design elements
in her beautiful Ohio sampler, possibly reflecting the New Jersey
heritage of older family members (Fig.3).
Lives
cannot be condensed into exhibition labels, but whenever possible
a connection is made to their own time and place. Telling Their
Stories hopefully adds a fragment of information about 19th
century needleworkers viewed with a 21 st century perspective.
Olive
Blair Graffam
Curator
of Collections/Research Associate
DAR
Museum
1776
D Street NW
Washington
, DC 20006
The
DAR Museum is pleased to host a sampler symposium on May 29, 2008
from 8:30 AM until 4:00 PM. It is a pleasure to welcome Amy Finkel,
Elisabeth Garrett Widmer, Janet
S. Hasson, and Dr. Mary C. Beaudry as the featured speakers. Please
contact the DAR Museum at museum@dar.org,
202-879-3240, or 202-879-3237 for information or a registration
brochure.
Fig.1
Needlework
picture , 1817
Caroline
Litchfield Newcomb
Litchfield
Female Academy
Silk
and watercolor on silk
Gift
of Mrs. John H. Bruns in memory 64.129
Of
Caroline Newcomb Cheeseman
Granddaughter
of Caroline L. Newcomb
Photograph
by Mark Gulezian/ Quicksilver
Fig.2
Sampler
, 1858
Susannah
McClure
Iowa
City , Iowa
Wool
and silk on linen
Friends
of the Museum Purchase 2007.27
Photograph,
courtesy M. Finkel & Daughter
Fig.3
Sampler
, 1834
Louisa
Martha Vanlaw
Belmont
County , Ohio
Silk
on linen
Friends
of the Museum Purchase 2005.48
In
honor of Linda B. Wetzel, Curator General
NSDAR,
2004-2007
Photograph
by Mark Gulezian/ Quicksilver
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