Description:
Pictorial needlework wrought by Hannah Kingsbury (1797-1869) while a student at the Abby Wright school in South Hadley, Massachusetts. The scene depicts a classically-dressed woman holding an oversized cornucopia (symbolizing abundance) against a landscape with a town in the distance. Kingsbury was the daughter of Jeremiah and Elizabeth Kingsbury of Spencer, Massachusetts. According to family tradition, Hannah attended school in Providence, Rhode Island before attending the Abby Wright school in South Hadley, Massachusetts. PIctorial needlework, that included painting and embroidery, was often a second, more advanced project for school girls attending one of the many academies in New England during the early 19th century, and it maye have been in Providence where Kingsbury received some of that earlier training; she would have been in her early teens when attending the Wright school, which closed its doors in 1811. Hannah married Andrew W. Porter on December 29, 1821. Born in Wethersfield, Connecticut and raised in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Abby Wright (1774-1842) attended Westfield Academy in 1800-1801, and opened her own school in South Hadley in 1803. By 1804, she was such a success that is was difficult to find housing for all her students. Her teaching ended when she married Peter Allen (1764-1848) in 1809; her half-sister, Sophia Goodrich, took over the school, which appears to have continued at least through 1811. Institutions like Wright's taught girls accomplishments like needlework in preparation for their future roles as wives and mothers in the New Republic. By the early 19th century, pictorial needlework like this example constituted a major product for New England schools teaching needlework. Ornamental visual arts like this piece required skill in composition and design, however this latter category also frequently required the services of professionals both inside and outside the school.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2014.19.73 |
