Description:
Needlework sampler done in silk embroidery on a plain linen ground, which has the inscription, "Hannah M Smith AE 8 years W Springfie[l]d 1823." This is probably Hannah M. Smith (1815-1842), the daughter of Jonathan Smith (1773-1847) who married Martha Cone (1778-1850) in 1809. Hannah married William H. Wells in 1840. The sampler has a scrolling vine and flower design; over 5 rows of the alphabet in capital and small letters and the numbers 1-10; over the verse: "O for a closer walk with God / A calm and heavenly frame ' A light to shine upon the road ' That leads me to the Lamb." The bottom left of the sampler has a female figure (who may be Hannah) wearing a stylish turban and high-waisted, neo-classical, long-sleeved dress facing a city street with the Meeting House its head and a drunken man reclining next to his pot of ale at the end of the street on the lower right. Although international standards set goals in fashion and behavior, family and neighbor reinforced self-improvement in the community; the meeting house with its connotations of authority and order at the head of the street is in contrast to the drunkard at the other end. The state-wide temperance movement officially established in 1813 also resulted in a rising tide against drinking, which took on increasing importance and influence. Formerly L89.02.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2005.8 |
