Needlework picture (Mourning picture)

Description

This is a needlework mourning picture with silk threads on a silk ground. It was worked by by Diana H. Cogswell of Massachusetts between 1803 and 1813. Diana also created an earlier marking sampler, just before working this mourning picture. She is thought to have been taught at Mrs. Rowson's school. Susanna Haswell Rowson (1762-1824) opened her school for girls in 1797 in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1803, she moved her school to Newton, Massachusetts for a few years and then later back to Boston. It is unclear whether Diana attended the Newton or the Boston location. Rowson's school also used type-set epitaphs. On the one currently known signed Rowson's school mourning picture, the stylized willow tree does not curve as extremely as it does on this one. A small group of pieces with willow trees are known like this but no school has been located for them.