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Stitching and History

May 12, 2020 / Leave a comment

June 12, 2020 Update

I’ve been searching for examples, reading and taking notes. I’ve also decided on a design and pieced it together. I need to finish a gift project before I trace this one and start it.

This design features a quote by Sojourner Truth, the Wedgewood Medallion and a border of Columbine flowers, inspired by one of Sarah Mapps Douglass’s floral watercolors. I don’t have the skill to draw the flowers by hand, so I found the line drawing online in a collection of antique needlework patterns.

I also have the start of a bibliography. I will update it as I find more sources.

Initial Post

This will be where I post updates on my summer research and stitching project on antislavery needlework. I’m picking up a project I started back in 2013, which you can read here. Since writing this, I’ve found quite a bit more material on antislavery needlework and bazaars and I’ve also learned to embroider. As I expand and revise the original conference paper, I will be designing and stitching a sampler with an antislavery motif. I am taking my inspiration from this sampler in the Philadelphia Museum of Art collections, created by British activist Hannah Bloor.

Sampler by Hannah Bloor, c. 1829. Accession number 1969-288-317. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Whitman Sampler Collection, gift of Pet, Incorporated, 1969

The design for my sample will feature the female version of the Wedgewood medallion. I will be choosing a quote or other text to put on the sampler. Right now I am leaning towards a quote from Sojourner Truth.

Am I Not a Woman and a Sister
Image of an antislavery medallion of the late 18th century, from the British Museum. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SisterSlave.jpg

On the scholarly side, I am building my bibliography and reading through new secondary sources and scouring my archival notes for more primary source material. In the upcoming weeks I will post my reading list.