The Hands of Young America by Susan Pence Beaudry
Part II - Hands That Taught Young America
Originally published in Needle Pointers, Volume XIV, Number 2, February/March '86
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I pray that risen from the dead,
A crown, perhaps, upon my head,
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| Certainly this is the lament
of many truehearted stitchers, but nary a stitcher among
us can truly claim to be born with a needle in
their hand. Stitching is surely a learning process, and
the hands that ply stitches have had the guidance of
wiser teaching hands. This has repeated itself throughout
history. From the 17th through the 19th Century, children from three to as old as ten were often sent to dame schools. These schools were usually conducted by widowed women of reduced means in their homes or rented buildings. The education though rudimentary, frequently, included needlework This was available only for the fortunate female, and for many it would be their single brush with formal education Plain sewing, knitting and marking samplers were usually taught. (It is interesting, to note that most extant male samplers appear to have been made in dame schools.) These marking samplers would prepare the students for the task of marking textiles so necessary for their laundering and rotation, and for ownership and legacy purposes. Attendance at dame schools was erratic and the education informal. Before 1800, harsh treatment was often the manner of the day since the teachers felt they had to work to subdue "original sin." However, not all were thought of harshly, as this 1707 epitaph to Mrs. Murray attests: This good school dame In the 18th Century the female literacy rate was around fifty percent, and it was the lucky girl that went to dame school and the very fortunate that continued beyond that level. Mistress Mary Turfrey, wife of the commander of Fort Mary, is reputed to be the first Colonial embroidery instructor, advertising in the Boston newspapers of 1706. Others would follow, wishing to guide hands that wished to learn stitches. The Balch SchoolMary Balch's School has produced one of the largest group of fine schoolgirl samplers and embroidered pictures of the sampler period. Located in Providence, Rhode Island, the school seems to have been started by Sarah Balch after the death of her tailor husband. Experience with the tailoring may have been very valuable to Sarah and her daughter Mary. Mary assisted her mother and soon took over the running of the school, and it is under her supervision that the school gained its outstanding reputation. Mary's epitaph proclaims that she started the first "female academy" in Providence, and the earliest sampler from the school is dated March 1785. This sampler reflects the Newport background of the Balch family, with its elegant people and use of flowers and birds. The striated arches enclosing a setting with a building and people will become one of the hallmarks of this school Though the Balch School's most important embroideries were done in a rented house in the Constitution Hill area, Mary decided in 1800 to build a house on George Street where she could take in boarders and enlarge the school. Before this, girls from out of town had to room elsewhere. This move began a very active time, for the school enrollment rose to fifteen to twenty boarders and sixty to eighty day students. Students included young boys, girls at all ages, and some ladies in their twenties. Students might stay long enough to execute a single piece of needlework or remain for a large portion of their girlhood, as did orphaned Sally Sabin -- who entered in 1805 and left just before her 1814 marriage at age fifteen. Many of the Balch samplers are characterized by the use of an imposing floral border, usually a vine growing from double handled vases with various flowers. One very charming thing about these samplers is their frequent use of Providence's public buildings, many of them found at Rhode Island State College (now Brown University). Silver threads were also economically used, usually in the costumes of figures. Frequentlv used stitches are the rococo, rice, diagonal cross, split, Oriental and diagonal darning. In 1825, Mary Balch's health became impaired and though she lived another six years, the school was probably run by her cherished adopted daughter, Eliza Walker, who maintained the school for about ten years after Mary's death. This was one of New E ngland's most famous needlework schools, and we are fortunate indeed to have as a legacy so many works from hands Mary Balch taught so expertly. |
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Susanna Rowson's AcademySusanna Rowson was a fascinating and a versatile figure, born in England in 1762 and brought to the Colonies at age 4 by her father and stepmother. After the Revolution their property was confiscated, and the family returned to England where Susanna finished her first novel in 1786, beginning a prolific writing career. She married William Rowson and in a few vears when his hardware business went bankrupt, the couple entered the theatre to earn their living. They toured throughout England and then began touring young America. It is possible that Mary Balch and some of her pupils saw Susanna Rowson in Americans in England or A Lesson for Daughters, a play she both starred in and wrote. In 1797, Susanna left the stage and opened a female academy in Boston which taught reading, writing, arithmetic, geography and needlework (music and drawing were added later). First term netted her only one student, but soon she had over one hundred students in her care. The school was very successful and moved several times ending up on Hollis Street in Boston. In the early 1800's, annual exhibitions of her students' work were begun. For these, the water colors and exquisite silk on silk embroideries (for which the school was so famous) were put on public display. Susanna Rowson was mainly a literary figure and well-known in Boston society. Besides novels, plays and poetry, she wrote and published textbooks on various subjects. However, she must have been an expert needlewoman with standards of excellence, as it appears that she taught most of the needlework herself. When she retired in 1822, she turned over the school to her adopted daughter, Fanny Mills, and her niece, Susan Johnstorn. Two years later she died, leaving her memory engraved in her writing and the silken stitches of the hands she instructed. Pennsylvania SchoolsOf Pennsylvania's schools, the Moravian School in Bethlehem and the Westtown School in Chester County are outstanding boarding schools in needlework history. The Moravian School was founded as a girls school in the early 1740s and was opened to non-Moravians in 1785. Many subjects were offered, with little difference in studies from those offered boys in their schools. The only basic difference was the teaching of needlework, housekeeping, spinning and weaving. The teachers (noted for their gentleness) taught ribbon work, sewing, tambour work, knitting and the making of samplers. Between 1765 and 1870 the Moravian Female Seminary at Bethlehem educated over 5,500 young ladies. The Philadelphia Society of Friends opened the Westtown Boarding School in 1799. Sewing was the only deviation from a boy's curriculum with part of two weeks out of every six spent in the sewing building. Plain sewing was tackled first, then darning samplers with five to seven patches were stitched. Extract samplers formed the next level of accomplishment with their oval vine which enclosed the school and maker's name, plus a verse, (perhaps alphabets) and the year in Arabic or Roman numerals. Rarer are the building samplers which comprise another level of work and the unique three-dimensional globe samplers which were seldom done in America. Changing educational ideas brought about the end of the sewing classes in 1843, but the Westtown School is still in operation today and planning a show of their pieces of schoolgirl needlework in the Fall of 1986. Needlework is a heritage passed on through the items stitched and things pertaining to them. But even greater, and more important, is the heritage that is passed one to the other as we teach the hands around us to carry on the art. Remember hands that have taught you and be willing to teach new hands. Keep the heritage alive! ©1985 by Susan Pence Beaudry. Bibliography (Especially for the more curious)
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