This year marks the 350th anniversary of NewJersey, a milestone celebrated across the state with events and programs highlighting innovation, diversity, and liberty. The Morven Museum and Garden in Princeton is marking the occasion with an exhibition that introduces all three themes. Hail Specimen of Female Art! New Jersey Schoolgirl Needlework, 1726-1860 brings together 150 examples of needlework made in or by New Jersey schoolgirls and organizes them geographically to illustrate connections between the elaborate artworks and utilitarian objects crafted by girls of diverse religious, family, and socioeconomic backgrounds, from the Quaker schools in Burlington County to a luxurious silk-on-silk memorial to George Washington made at the prestigious Folwell School in Philadelphia by a New Jersey native.
Above: Needlework by Kiziah Sharp, Burlington County, New Jersey, 1825. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Diker.
Research for the show has made it possible to exhibit multiple examples by the same girl or by members of one family, and it has also resulted in the discovery of a heretofore unknown sampler made by Mary G. Taylor, a teacher whose pupils are represented with three samplers in the same style. An illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition, and the Princeton Theological Seminary hosts a symposium on the topic on October 5.
Hail Specimen of Female Art! New Jersey Schoolgirl Needlework, 1726 – 1860 • Morven Museum and Garden, Princeton, New Jersey • October 3 to March 29, 2015 • morven.org
