Phelps mourning embroidery

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From the collections of PVMA • Digital image © Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Assoc. • Image use information


About this item

Being able to produce fine embroidery was a sign of female accomplishment and education in the 19th century. Martha “Patty” Phelps came to Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts, in May 1804, only one month after her mother died. She spent the summer stitching this silk-on-silk embroidery recording her mother’s and her young brother’s deaths. Mourning pictures like these were a way of expressing a family’s grief and sense of loss. The weeping willows and neoclassical funerary urns Patty Phelps painstakingly sewed were traditional symbols of mourning in the 19th century.

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Details

Item typeTextiles
CreatorPhelps, Martha “Patty”
Date1804
PlaceDeerfield, Massachusetts
TopicArt, Music, Literature, Crafts
Death, Cemeteries, Monuments, Memorials
EraThe New Nation, 1784–1815
MaterialCloth
Process/FormatTextile
Dimension detailsHeight (framed): 18.50 in Width (framed): 22.62 in
Catalog #1990.016
View this item in our curatorial database →
Phelps, Martha “Patty”. Phelps mourning embroidery. 1804. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/1990-016/. Accessed on December 7, 2024.

Please note: Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.