Skip to main content

Textiles

Regional textile artists marketed themselves through their skills with thread, fiber, and fabric. Textile production occurred in varied contexts and for diverse purposes. While women were typically associated with the production of quilts as a domestic endeavor, men dominated as commercial weavers in the 1800s. The textile field also offered professional opportunities to women, however, through occupations such as seamstress and dressmaker. Textile design and creation were not considered fine art until the early 1900s. Washington University in St. Louis was among the first art schools to teach textile design in its curriculum.

While many textile artists made a living by selling their products, others reaped more indirect benefits. In the early 1800s in America, a young woman’s education was intended as preparation for her primary occupation: managing a home. Novice seamstresses perfected their sewing skills by embroidering samplers, which also allowed them to demonstrate their patience, diligence, and refinement. Such textiles played a consequential role in communicating the domestic and moral characteristics that would signal their makers’ suitability for marriage.

Looking Prompts

Look closely at this work of art.

  • Begin by looking at one section of this quilt for at least 10 seconds, then slowly scan different areas of the quilt. What do you notice? What aspects of the quilt command your attention or excite your eyes?
  • If this quilt were a dance, how do you imagine it would move? Would the movements be quick or slow? Free-form or choreographed? If you feel comfortable, create this dance with your body.
  • Select one color patch on the quilt. Trace the path of similar patches by looking all around the quilt design. If each patch were a card for a matching game, would you be able to find matches?
  • Imagine each square on the quilt functioning as a window. What might you find when looking through them? If you could climb through one of the windows, where would you land?

  • This quilt top’s dramatic design of light and dark diamonds is striking from a distance. When viewed up close, the strips of dress silks and ribbons create 110 small squares, each centered with red or pink, that form the log cabin pattern. Anna Jane Parker created this quilt with remnants of dress silks, ribbons, and upholstery fabrics that she collected from her business as a professional seamstress and dressmaker. Though born into slavery in North Carolina, she had been emancipated before moving to St. Louis by 1860. The quilt, which remained unfinished without any batting or backing, was passed down in Parker’s family until the 1970s and carried memories of Parker for her daughter and granddaughter, who recalled that she “sewed beautifully.”

 

Susan Bushey, American, 1827–1905; Embroidered Sampler, 1838; linen embroidered with silk; 16 3/8 x 16 5/8 inches; Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Mabel Herbert Harper, 1957 2021.192

Looking Prompts

  • If you were asked to describe this textile to a friend, what aspects would you focus on?
  • What do you imagine the inside of this building looks like? Draw a picture of the inside of the building. Or write a story to describe your adventures exploring inside the building and what you found or who you met.
  • This embroidery square was stitched by 11-year-old Susan Bushey, who created scenes she remembered from her hometown of St. Louis while she was away at boarding school. If you were to create your own embroidery square, what would you include? Draw a design for your square.

  • Eleven-year-old Susan Bushey confidently stitched the brick facade of the Fourth Street Methodist Episcopal Church in St. Louis surrounded by a profusion of flora and fauna. She may have felt homesick when she created this sampler while attending a boarding school for young women 200 miles away from her St. Louis–based family. Or perhaps she hoped to express her industriousness, creativity, and piety to demonstrate her character and ability to manage a future home. And, indeed, it worked: she met her future husband through her family ties to the very church she depicted here.

    In the early 1800s in America, a young woman’s education was intended to prepare her for her primary employment: managing a home. Working on samplers allowed novices to hone their sewing skills and demonstrate their patience, obedience, and refinement. Most young women began by producing a simple marking sampler. They then progressed to a decorative sampler or needlework picture that would communicate their values and those of their family to potential suitors.

  • Image Credits in Order of Appearance

    Attributed to Anna Jane Parker, American, c.1841–1918 ; Quilt Top, Pieced Log Cabin, 1875–1900; silk and cotton, with some earlier textiles; 78 1/2 x 73 inches; The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Gift of Jean and Jerry Jackson and Bob and Helen Jackson Brewster 2021.194

    Susan Bushey, American, 1827–1905; Embroidered Sampler, 1838; linen embroidered with silk; 16 3/8 x 16 5/8 inches; Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Mabel Herbert Harper, 1957 2021.192