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Connecticut Needlework: Women, Art, and Family, 1740-1840

Collection Info
Gift of Newton C. Brainard, 1962.28.4  Photograph by Gavin Ashworth. © 2009 The Connecticut His ...

Twenty years before what has been traditionally accepted as the beginning of two-dimensional pictorial art in Connecticut (William Johnston's portrait painting in the region in 1762), talented and skillful Connecticut women were creating pictures on canvas-assembling color, line, form, and symbols into visual compositions intended for display. These women's canvases, in contrast to those typically considered by art historians, used needles instead of brushes, and multicolored threads instead of paint.

Some types of needlework are primarily associated with Connecticut - even distinctive to Connecticut - such as bed rugs, quilted petticoats with figural designs, and the use of crewel embroidery on women's dresses. But whatever the end product, Connecticut needlewomen created a broad range of aesthetically pleasing figural and decorative art that was displayed within private homes or worn on personal occasions. This exhibition makes public a variety of work that affirms the fundamental role that female Connecticut needleworkers played in the development of the visual arts of early America.

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Gift of Mrs. William Talcott, 1844.21.0  Photograph by Gavin Ashworth.  © 2009 The Connecticut  ...
Priscilla Kingsbury
1770-1790
Gift  of Rebecca and Cornelia Butler, 1859.9.0  Photograph by Gavin Ashworth.  © 2009 The Conne ...
Mary Pierpont
about 1730-1740
Gift of Hezekiah L. Hosmer, 1859.18.2  Photograph by David Stansbury.  © 2010 The Connecticut H ...
Lucy Spalding
1793
Sampler
Sarah Lawrence
1791
Gift of Jane Tuttle, 1923.9.0  Photograph by Windsor Conservation © 2012 The Connecticut Histor ...
Frederic William Tuttle
1821
Bequest of Frederick Jabez Huntington, 1925.1.3  Photograph by David Stansbury © 2012 Connectic ...
Faith Trumbull
1761
Gift of Jane W. Stone, 1935.10.1  Photograph by David Stansbury.  © 2009 The Connecticut Histor ...
Jerusha Pitkin
about 1750-1755
Gift of Emily Strickland, 1939.8.1  Photograph by Gavin Ashworth.  © 2009 The Connecticut Histo ...
Lucy Ripley
1804-1805
Gift of Helen L. Perkins, 1949.5.0  Photograph by David Stansbury.  © 2009 The Connecticut Hist ...
Charlotte Perkins
1810-1815
Connecticut Historical Society collection, 1950.361.0  Photograph by David Stansbury.  © 2010 T ...
Eunice Ripley
1792
Wholecloth Quilt
Asenath King
about 1787
Gift of the estate of Mabel H. Talcott, 1956.57.1a-c  Photograph by David Stansbury.  © 2009 Th ...
Eliza Talcott
about 1810
Gift of Ada Louise Taylor, 1956.63.9a-c  Photograph by David Stansbury.  © 2009 The Connecticut ...
Nancy Hale
1802
Museum purchase, 1959.2.2  Photograph by David Stansbury.  © 2009 The Connecticut Historical So ...
Nancy Dunham
about 1805
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred H. Terry, 1959.11.2, Connecticut Historical Society, Copyright Unde ...
Charlotte Perkins
1805-1810
Gift of Mrs. Norman R. Spring, 1959.53.1  Photograph by Gavin Ashworth  © 2008 The Connecticut  ...
Thankful Stanton
1820
Gift of the Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, 1959.54.2  Photograph by Gavin Ashworth.  © 2009 Th ...
Sarah Halsey
1758
1959.56.0, Gift of Mrs. J. H. K. Davis. © 2008 The Connecticut Historical Society.
Elizabeth Foote
probably 1778
Gift of Newton C. Brainard, 1962.28.2b  Photograph by Gavin Ashworth.  © 2009 The Connecticut H ...
Prudence Geer
about 1770
Gift of Newton C. Brainard, 1962.28.2d,e,g  Photograph by Gavin Ashworth.  © 2009 The Connectic ...
Prudence Geer
about 1770
Gift of Newton C. Brainard, 1962.28.3a  Photograph by Gavin Ashworth.  © 2009 The Connecticut H ...
Prudence Punderson
1776-1780