The Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework of Deerfield, Massachusetts, began creating cross-stitched embroideries soon after the society was formed in 1896. A 1903 review of an exhibition of the society’s work at the Art Institute of Chicago observed that “by far the most attractive things in the Deerfield case are the cross stitch pieces in color.” This embroidery would have been used as a tablemat or placed on a chair back.