Description:
Unfinished family register done in silk embroidery on a plain linen ground, which is inscribed "WROUGHT BY HEROINE STOW." Heroine Stow (1801-1877) was the daughter of Capt. Willliam Stow (1774-1858) and Molly (Polly) Huxford Stow (1782-1869) of Conway who married in 1799. The register has three circles with the names: "William / Stow borne / June 9 / 1774" and "They / were married / Feb. 11th / 1799" and "Polly Huxford borne / Aug the 23d / 1782." Two columns of names follow topped by the headings "NAMES BIRTHS" and "NAMES DEATHS:" Angelica Aug 12th 1799 Angelica Oct 10th 1799 / William Frederick Oct 23rd 1800 William Frederick Jan 6th 1801 / Heroine Dec 18th 1801 / Franklin July 7th 1804 / Henry Clinton 19th Oct 1806 Henry Clinton June 15th 1808 / Statira Statira / Achsah Seers April 7th 1812 / Statira May 7th 1814 / William Ralston Apr 27 1818 William Ralson Nov 13 1845." The register is embroidered with an archway topped with hearts and other decorative elements over a tree flanked with flower baskets surrounded by circles; over two vertical columns running along the side of the names and flanked by a vertical band of a stylized form; over a large center basket of fruits and leaves, and a band of six small trees and two small flower baskets. Although Stowe was from Conway, Massachusetts, it is difficult to pinpoint stylistically where she may have gone to school to work her embroidered register. Both Providence, Rhode Island's Mary (Polly) Balch (1762-1831) and Glastonbury, Connecticut's Miss Cornwall both promoted the distinctive archway framework for registers during the 1790s through the 1820s. Examples wrought by Rhode Island girls Amey Randall in 1793 and Mary Morrell, also dated 1818, shares similar characteristics, as does Mary Ann POst (1813-1883) of Hebron, Connecticut, who wrought hers in 1827. Those families with financial resources sent their daughters to schools that taught needlework and other accomplishments during the 18th and 19th centuries, which could be many miles away from the girls' towns. However it is much larger than most embroideries from that school. Middleclass Americans popularized the genre of the family register in the late 18th century as they increasingly promoted the nuclear family as the basis of social order. Academies incorporated the genre into the curriculum for both boys and girls as an option for drawing and embroidery projects. Not only did she record infant deaths and the passing of names to subsequent siblings, but also, decades later, she, or another family member, embroidered death dates for two adult siblings.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2002.69.1 |
