Stitching It Together:

This learner's guide complements the Museum's exhibition With Needle and Brush: Schoolgirl Embroidery From the Connecticut River Valley on view from October 2, 2010 through January 31, 2011.

During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the mastery of needlework was essential to a young woman's future. Samplers, canvaswork pieces, and lush silk embroideries were evidence of the young women's accomplishments and social status. Finished works were often lavishly framed displayed in the parlor of her family's home, where visitors would be sure to see them.

To learn the art of needlework, these young women attended fashionable academies and smaller day schools located in the Connecticut River Valley, from Old Saybrook on the Connecticut shore and north to Deerfield in Massachusetts and beyond. Taught by skilled teachers, needlework was an important component of schoolgirls' curriculum along with reading, writing, and arithmetic, and was often featured in the advertisements promoting the schools.

This learner's guide is an online introduction to the subject of schoolgirl embroidery and provides definitions of the various types of needlework, ranging from samplers to silk embroideries, a map of the Connecticut River Valley showing the location of the schools where needlework was taught, a timeline that places the works in the exhibition into the context of Connecticut and American history, and lastly, a series of pre- and post- visit classroom activities aligned with the goals of Connecticut State Standards for history curriculum.

» Design Your Own Canvaswork
» Putting Words in their Mouths (or Ideas in their Heads)
» Design Your Own Coat of Arms
» Compare and Contrast


This online learner's guide was made possible through generous support of The Coby Foundation, Ltd., and the Connecticut Humanities Council.