Chapter I: Front Matter

THE DEVELOPMENT
OF EMBROIDERY IN
AMERICA

By Candace Wheeler

From the painting by her daughter Dora Wheeler Keith.

_Painted by Dora Wheeler Keith_]

THE DEVELOPMENT OF
EMBROIDERY IN AMERICA

_By_

CANDACE WHEELER

_Illustrated_

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
MCMXXI

DEVELOPMENT OF EMBROIDERY IN AMERICA

Copyright, 1921, by Harper & Brothers
Printed in the United States of America
X-V

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

Introductory. The Story of the Needle 3

I. Beginnings in the New World 10

II. The Crewelwork of Our Puritan Mothers 17

III. Samplers and a Word About Quilts 48

IV. Moravian Work, Portraiture, French Embroidery and Lacework 62

V. Berlin Woolwork 96

VI. Revival of Embroidery, and the Founding of the Society
of Decorative Art 102

VII. American Tapestry 121

VIII. The Bayeux Tapestries 144

ILLUSTRATIONS

CANDACE WHEELER. From the painting by her daughter
Dora Wheeler Keith Frontispiece

MOCCASINS OF PORCUPINE QUILLWORK.
Made by Sioux Indians _Facing_ 12

PIPE BAGS OF PORCUPINE QUILLWORK. Made by Sioux Indians 12

MAN'S JACKET OF PORCUPINE QUILLWORK. Made by Sioux Indians 14

MAN'S JACKET OF PORCUPINE QUILLWORK. Made by Plains Indians 14

CREWEL DESIGN, drawn and colored, which dates back
to Colonial times 18

TESTER embroidered in crewels in shades of blue on white
homespun linen. Said to have been brought to Essex, Mass.,
in 1640, by Madam Susanna, wife of Sylvester Eveleth 22

RAISED EMBROIDERY ON BLACK VELVET. Nineteenth century American 22

QUILTED COVERLET made by Ann Gurnee 26

HOMESPUN WOOLEN BLANKET with King George's Crown embroidered
with home-dyed blue yarn in the corner. From the Burdette
home at Fort Lee, N. J., where Washington was entertained 26

CHEROKEE ROSE BLANKET, made about 1830, of homespun wool with
"Indian Rose" design about nineteen inches in diameter
worked in the corners in home-dyed yarns of black, red,
yellow, and dark green. From the Westervelt collection 26

BED SET, Keturah Baldwin pattern, designed, dyed, and worked
by The Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework,
Deerfield, Mass. 32

BED COVERS worked in candle wicking 32

SAMPLER worked by Adeline Bryant in 1826, now in the possession
of Anna D. Trowbridge, Hackensack, N. J. 50

SAMPLER embroidered in colors on écru linen, by Mary Ann Marley,
aged twelve, August 30, 1820 52

SAMPLER embroidered in brown on écru linen, by Martha Carter
Fitzhugh, of Virginia, in 1793, and left unfinished
at her death 52

SAMPLER worked by Christiana Baird. Late eighteenth
century American 54

MEMORIAL PIECE worked in silks, on white satin. Sacred to
the memory of Major Anthony Morse, who died March 22, 1805 54

SAMPLER of Moravian embroidery, worked in 1806,
by Sarah Ann Smith, of Smithtown, L. I. 54

SAMPLER worked by Nancy Dennis, Argyle, N. Y., in 1810 56

SAMPLER worked by Nancy McMurray, of Salem, N. Y., in 1793 56

PETIT POINT PICTURE which belonged to President John Quincy Adams,
and now in the Dwight M. Prouty collection 56

SAMPLER in drawnwork, écru linen thread, made by Anne Gower,
wife of Gov. John Endicott, before 1628 60

SAMPLER embroidered in dull colors on écru canvas by Mary
Holingworth, wife of Philip English, Salem merchant,
married July, 1675, accused of witchcraft in 1692,
but escaped to New York 60

SAMPLER worked by Hattie Goodeshall, who was born
February 19, 1780, in Bristol 60

NEEDLEBOOK of Moravian embroidery made about 1850, now in
the possession of Mrs. J. N. Myers, Bethlehem, Pa. 64

MORAVIAN EMBROIDERY worked by Emily E. Reynolds, Plymouth, Pa.,
in 1834, at the age of twelve, while at the Moravian Seminary
in Bethlehem, and now owned by her granddaughter 64

MORAVIAN EMBROIDERY from Louisville, Ky. 66

LINEN TOWELS embroidered in cross-stitch. Pennsylvania Dutch
early nineteenth century 70

"THE MEETING OF ISAAC AND REBECCA"--Moravian embroidered picture,
an heirloom in the Reichel family of Bethlehem, Pa. Worked by
Sarah Kummer about 1790 74

"SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME"--Cross-stitch picture
made about 1825, now in the possession of the Beckel family,
Bethlehem, Pa. 74

ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. Kensington embroidery by Mary Winifred Hoskins,
of Edenton, N. C., while attending an English finishing school
in Baltimore in 1814 76

FIRE SCREEN embroidered in cross-stitch worsted 78

FIRE SCREEN, design, "The Scottish Chieftain," embroidered in
cross-stitch by Mrs. Mary H. Cleveland Allen 78

FIRE SCREEN worked about 1850 by Miss C. A. Granger,
of Canandaigua, N. Y. 78

EMBROIDERED PICTURE in silks, with a painted sky 80

CORNELIA AND THE GRACCHI. Embroidered picture in silks,
with velvet inlaid, worked by Mrs. Lydia Very, of Salem,
at the age of sixteen while at Mrs. Peabody's school 80

CAPE of white lawn embroidered. Nineteenth century American 84

COLLARS of white muslin embroidered. Nineteenth century American 84

BABY'S CAP. White mull, with eyelet embroidery.
Nineteenth century American 86

BABY'S CAP. Embroidered mull. 1825 86

COLLAR of white embroidered muslin. Nineteenth century American 86

EMBROIDERED SILK WEDDING WAISTCOAT, 1829. From the
Westervelt collection 88

EMBROIDERED WAIST OF A BABY DRESS, 1850. From the collection
of Mrs. George Coe 88

EMBROIDERY ON NET. Border for the front of a cap made about 1820 90

VEIL (unfinished) hand run on machine-made net.
American nineteenth century 90

LACE WEDDING VEIL, 36 × 40 inches, used in 1806. From the
collection of Mrs. Charles H. Lozier 92

HOMESPUN LINEN NEEDLEWORK called "Benewacka" by the Dutch.
The threads were drawn and then whipped into a net on
which the design was darned with linen. Made about 1800
and used in the end of linen pillow cases 92

BED HANGING of polychrome cross-stitch appliquéd
on blue woolen ground 98

NEEDLEPOINT SCREEN made in fine and coarse point.
Single cross-stitch 98

HAND-WOVEN TAPESTRY of fine and coarse needlepoint 100

TAPESTRY woven on a hand loom. The design worked in fine point
and the background coarse point. A new effect in hand
weave originated at the Edgewater Tapestry Looms 100

EMBROIDERED MITS 104

WHITE COTTON VEST embroidered in colors. Eighteenth-nineteenth
century American 104

WHITE MULL embroidered in colors. Eighteenth-nineteenth
century American 104

EMBROIDERED VALANCE, part of set and spread for high-post
bedstead, 1788. Worked in crewels on India cotton,
by Mrs. Gideon Granger, Canandaigua, New York 104

DETAIL of linen coverlet worked in colored wool 108

LINEN COVERLET embroidered in Kensington stitch
with colored wool 108

QUILTED COVERLET worked entirely by hand 118

DETAIL of quilted coverlet 118

THE WINGED MOON. Designed by Dora Wheeler and executed
in needle-woven tapestry by The Associated Artists, 1883 122

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY DESIGN TAPESTRY PANEL 126

THE MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES. Arranged (from photographs
made in London of the original cartoon by Raphael, in the
Kensington Museum) by Candace Wheeler and executed in
needle-woven tapestry by The Associated Artists 130

MINNEHAHA LISTENING TO THE WATERFALL. Drawn by Dora Wheeler
and executed in needle-woven tapestry by
The Associated Artists, 1884 132

APHRODITE. Designed by Dora Wheeler for needle-woven tapestry
worked by The Associated Artists, 1883 134

FIGHTING DRAGONS. Drawn by Candace Wheeler and embroidered
by The Associated Artists, 1885 140

THREE SCENES FROM THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY 146

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EMBROIDERY IN AMERICA

INTRODUCTORY -- THE STORY OF THE NEEDLE

The story of embroidery includes in its history all the work of the needle since Eve sewed fig leaves together in the Garden of Eden. We are the inheritors of the knowledge and skill of all the daughters of Eve in all that concerns its use since the beginning of time.

When this small implement came open-eyed into the world it brought with it possibilities of well-being and comfort for races and ages to come. It has been an instrument of beneficence as long ago as "Dorcas sewed garments and gave them to the poor," and has been a creator of beauty since Sisera gave to his mother "a prey of needlework, 'alike on both sides.'" This little descriptive phrase--alike on both sides--will at once suggest to all needlewomen a perfection of method almost without parallel. Of course it can be done, but the skill of it must have been rare, even in those far-off days of leisure when duties and pleasures did not crowd out painstaking tasks, and every art was carried as far as human assiduity and invention could carry it.

A history of the needlework of the world would be a history of the domestic accomplishment of the world, that inner story of the existence of man which bears the relation to him of sunlight to the plant. We can deduce from these needle records much of the physical circumstances of woman's long pilgrimage down the ages, of her mental processes, of her growth in thought. We can judge from the character of her art whether she was at peace with herself and the world, and from its status we become aware of its relative importance to the conditions of her life.

There are few written records of its practice and growth, for an art which does not affect the commercial gain of a land or country is not apt to have a written or statistical history, but, fortunately in this case, the curious and valuable specimens which are left to us tell their own story. They reveal the cultivation and amelioration of domestic life. Their contribution to the refinements are their very existence.

A history of any domestic practice which has grown into a habit marks the degree of general civilization, but the practice of needlework does more. To a careful student each small difference in the art tells its own story in its own language. The hammered gold of Eastern embroidery tells not only of the riches of available material, but of the habit of personal preparation, instead of the mechanical. The little Bible description of captured "needlework alike on both sides" speaks unmistakably of the method of their stitchery, a cross-stitch of colored threads, which is even now the only method of stitch "alike on both sides."

It is an endless and fascinating story of the leisure of women in all ages and circumstances, written in her own handwriting of painstaking needlework and an estimate of an art to which gold, silver, and precious stones--the treasures of the world--were devoted. More than this, its intimate association with the growth and well-being of family life makes visible the point where savagery is left behind and the decrees of civilization begin.

I knew a dear Bible-nourished lonely little maid who had constructed for herself a drama of Eve in Eden, playing it for the solitary audience of self in a corner of the garden. She had brought all manner of fruits and had tied them to the fence palings under the apple boughs. This little Eve gathered grape leaves and sewed them carefully into an apron, the needle holes pierced with a thorn and held together by fiber stripped from long-stemmed plantain leaves. Here she and her audience of self hid under the apple boughs and waited for the call of the Lord.

The long ministry of the needle to the wants of mankind proves it to have been among the first of man's inventions. When Eve sewed fig leaves she probably improvised some implement for the process, and every daughter of Eve, from Eden to the present time, has been indebted to that little implement for expression of herself in love and duty and art. For this we must thank the man who, the Bible relates, was "the father of all such as worked in metals, and made needles and gave them to his household." He is the first "handy man" mentioned in history--blest be his memory!

If the day should ever come, not, let us hope, in our time or that of our children, when the manufacturer shall find that it no longer pays to make needles, what value will attach to individual specimens! If they were only to be found in occasional bric-à-brac shops or in the collections of some far-seeing hoarder of rarities, it would be difficult to overrate the interest which might attach to them. How, from the prodigal disregard of ages and the mysteries of the past, would emerge, one after another, recovered specimens, to be examined and judged and classified and arranged!

Perhaps collections of them will be found in future museums under different headings, such as:

"Needles of Consolation," under which might come those which Mary Stuart and her maids wrought their dismal hours into pathetic bits of embroidery during the long days of captivity, or the daughter of the sorrowful Marie Antoinette mended the dilapidations of the pitiful and ragged Dauphin; or:

"Needles of Devotion," wielded by canonized and uncanonized saints in and out of nunneries; or:

"Needles of History," like those with which Matilda stitched the prowess of William the Conqueror into breadths of woven flax.

Possibly there may arise needle experts who, upon microscopic examination and scientific test, will refer all specimens to positive date and peculiar function, and by so doing let in floods of light upon ancient customs and habits. It is idle to speculate upon a condition which does not yet exist, for, happily, needles for actual hand sewing are yet in sufficient demand to allow us to indulge in their purchase quite ungrudgingly.

I was once shown a needle--it was in Constantinople--which the dark-skinned owner declared had been treasured for three hundred years in his family, and he affirmed it so positively and circumstantially that I accepted the statement as truth. In fact, what did it matter? It was an interesting lie or an interesting truth, whichever one might consider it, and the needle looked quite capable of sustaining another century or so of family use. Its eye was a polished triangular hole made to carry strips of beaten metal, exactly such as we read of in the Bible as beaten and cut into strips for embroidery upon linen, such embroidery, in fact, as has often been burned in order to sift the pure gold from its ashes.

Not only the history, but the poetry and song of all periods are starred with real and ideal embroideries--noble and beautiful ladies, whose chief occupations seem to have been the medicining of wounds received in their honor or defense, or the broidering of scarfs and sleeves with which to bind the helmets of their knights as they went forth to tourney or to battle. In these old chronicles the knights fought or made music with harp or voice, and the women ministered or made embroidery, and so pictured lives which were lived in the days of knights and ladies drifted on. The sword and the needle expressed the duties, the spirit, and the essence of their several lives. The men were militant, the women domestic, and wherever in castle or house or nunnery the lives of women were made safe by the use of the sword the needle was devoting itself to comforts of clothing for the poor and dependent, or luxuries of adornment for the rich and powerful. So the needle lived on through all the civilizations of the old world, in the various forms which they developed, until it was finally inherited by pilgrims to a new world, and was brought with them to the wilderness of America.