Description:
Coat-of-arms on paper with the motto, "Virtue the Safest Shield / Rogers and Ingraham" and the name "MARY ROGERS" painted at the bottom center. Born in Norwich, Connecticut, Mary Ingraham Rogers (1794-1837) was the daughter of James Rogers (1765-1816) and Sophia Ingraham Rogers (c.1772-1796) who married in 1793. Mary married Stephen Fitch of Bozrah, Connecticut, on March 23, 1817, and died on September 22, 1837 at the age of 43. At the top of the composition, an eagle at the center holds up a floral garland, and is flanked by a bird at either corner. In the center, a cock is perched on the center medallion that combines the coats of arms of the two families, surrounded by gilded filagree and abstracted blue palm fronds and flanked by two lions. This center design itself is surrounded by a floral border. A black mat is painted on the glass. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, families with the financial means enrolled their daughters in schools where they learned needlework, painting, and drawing. Although unfinished, Rogers’ work suggests she attended the Misses Patten’s school in Hartford, Connecticut, about 40 miles from her birthplace of Norwich. In operation from 1785-1825, the school taught students throughout New England, and along with Lydia Bull Royse's school, was a leading institution for women in early 19th-century Hartford. The school was taught by Sarah Patten (1761-1843), along with her sisters Ruth (1764-1850) and Mary (1769-1850). Their mother, Ruth Wheelock Patten (1740-1831) came from a ministerial family, and it is likely that how she educated her daughters influenced their choice of subject matter for students at the school. Output of ornamental works at the school included coats of arms (both painted and embroidered) and needlework pictures (most often allegories of Charity or biblical scenes of Moses in the bullrushes, and mourning pictures). The school also taught reading, writing, arithmetic, geography and music. Painted coats of arms, along with needlework, constituted the primary means of education for girls in New England during the 18th and early 19th centuries, providing evidence of accomplishments for their families and future roles as mothers. Historic Deerfield has one other piece attributed to the Misses Pattens' school, an embroidered screen on a pole (HD 2007.19). According to Betty Ring, painted coat of arms from the Patten school resemble embroidered this example. Those characteristics include the eagle at top (facing left) supporting a garland of leaves and flowers, a central medallion motif (in this case the coat of arms) surrounded by floral U-shaped design, and an inscription in the ribbon at center bottom. Another work by Rogers, a silk and watercolor pictorial of Jeptha's Vow, is known to exist.
Label Text:
In the 18th and early 19th centuries, families with the financial means enrolled their daughters in schools where they learned needlework, painting, and drawing. Although unfinished, Rogers’ work suggests she attended the Misses Patten’s school in Hartford, Connecticut, about 40 miles from her birthplace of Norwich. In operation from 1785-1825, the school taught students throughout New England. In her example, Rogers included a combined heraldic emblem of both her father and mother’s families.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2008.27 |
