Object Number 2012.0004.002 A, B

Object Name

Needlework and frame (Mourning picture)

Category

Textiles (Needlework)

Credit Line/Donor

Museum purchase with funds provided by the Henry Francis du Pont Collectors Circle.

Creator (Role)

Susan Creamer (Maker)

Saint Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton (School mistress)
1774-1821
Elizabeth Ann, born an Episcopalian in New York City, was a daughter of Dr. Richard Bayley (1745-1801) and Catherine Charlton (d. 1777). Known as Betty Bayley, she was a society belle of New York when she married William Magee Seton (1768-1803), scion of a shipping empire, on January 25, 1794. His death and financial disaster left her the destitute mother of five children by 1804. At 30 years of age, after she became a widow, she converted to Catholicism, and began teaching to support her family. She moved to Baltimore in June of 1808 where her teaching efforts would be more accepted within the Catholic community. She started a small school on Paca Street and was joined by four other pious women who helped her run the school under the ideology of the French Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul. In 1809 they all took vows of this order, adopted habits, and established the Sisters of Charity in America. Samuel Sutherland Coopers, admiring their efforts, offered to fund the opening of a girls' boarding school in Emmitsburg, Maryland, to be run by Mother Elizabeth Ann and her Sisters. The school came to be known later as Saint Joseph's Academy. When Mother Elizabeth Ann became sick from advanced tuberculosis, she relinquished her guidance of the Academy to Sister Margaret George, who served as directress until 1847. Elizabeth Ann died in Maryland in January 1821. She is the first American-born saint of the Catholic Church. She was beatified by Pope John XXXII on March 17, 1963. (Ring, Betty, Girlhood Embroidery, pp. 516-517)

Place of Origin

Maryland, Mid-Atlantic, United States, North America

Mark or Signature or Inscription or Label

1. Label; Tied on tag; "2012.0004.002 A. B" (graphite)
2. Label; Backboard; "2012.0004.002 a, b" (graphite)
3. Inscription; On sampler; "A / memento / of my beloved / FATHER / who died August 1814 aged 41 / and / MOTHER who departed this life May 6th 1818 / aged 38 / SUSAN CREAMER" (ink)

Materials

Watercolor; Silk; Chenille; Ink

Techniques

Embroidered, Painted

Construction Description

Hand-embroidered, hand-painted

Dimensions (inches)

24.5 (H) , 29.5 (W) , 1.25 (D)

Dimensions (centimeters)

62.23 (H) , 74.93 (W) , 3.175 (D)

Measurement Notes

Measurements are overalls of frame. Measurements of needlework: L 18.000" x W 23.250". Measurements of glass: L 20.250" x W 25.500".

Object Description

Text available soon.

Bibliography and Bibliographic Notes

[Book] Ring, Betty. 1993 Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers & Pictorial Needlework 1650-1850. II.
• Similar: p. 519, fig. 578