Hilary Pothier and Dr. Martha Peacock, Department of Art History
In the past eight months, I have completed a great deal of research in a cross-cultural comparison of women’s needlework in England and America during the eighteenth century. The majority of my research focused on women’s embroidery in England during the time period, because I had already spent considerable time researching the American portion of my project. My research revealed that on both continents, the religious subjects of embroidered wall hangings were quite similar. However, a greater amount of England’s population had leisure time to complete such activities. The more vigorous frontier lifestyle of the settlers in New England did not allow such luxury.
I began my research by reading what I could find in the BYU library and other bookstores about women and handwork in England. These books created a good foundation and a start-point from which I could commence my primary research. Through my reading, I was able to create a list of museums containing needlework samples and a list of leaders in the field of women’s textile history. The abundance of references to the Royal Victoria and Albert Museum in England clearly defined it as a necessary pivot point in my research.
Once in England, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London did prove to be exceptionally valuable to my research. An entire hall of the museum is dedicated to women’s needlework dating from the sixteenth to twentieth century. Within the collection, over thirty samplers and other decorative wall hangings from the eighteenth century were displayed in frames. The samplers, an exercise for young girls learning to embroider, contained biblical verse or other religious prose that was then decorated with every variety of stitches. Among the samplers, the museum collection also included several sophisticated works, which deviated from the normal patterns established within samplers. Two particular works have helped me greatly in establishing my assumption that the handwork of these women is artwork worthy of study. The stylistical sophistication as well as the symbolic meanings within the work of these women opens up understanding into the rarely mentioned personal life of women in the eighteenth century.
I also spent a great deal of my time in the National Art Library inside the Victoria and Albert museum. The library contains an immense collection of books dealing with decorative arts. While there, my research was greatly abetted by several bibliographies I was able to find with special reference to embroidery and needlework. Through these bibliographies, I found several resources on embroidery, both English and American, of which I had not before heard. Frequently recurring names within the bibliographies also aided me in seeking out the leaders in the field of textile research. The library also had files on the curators of the museum, so I was able to isolate and learn the background of those individuals with whom it would be most valuable to gain contact through letters.
While in London, I was also able to visit The Silver Moon bookstore, a bookstore dedicated to women’s topics. In the store I found several books dealing with the life of women in eighteenth-century England. These books provide the background necessary for me to understand the circumstances under which these women were functioning in the eighteenth century. They give an idea of the economy in England at the time and woman’s position as a producer within that economy.
My stay in England also allowed me to visit several other smaller galleries in London as well as in Cambridge. In Cambridge, a specially prepared exhibition of samplers at the Museum of Folk Art provided further examples of the strict religious training young girls in England received. Similar to the samplers found in the Victoria and Albert Museum, these samplers contained biblical verse and alphabets done in a variety of stitches.
The most significant frustrations that I encountered in my research stand-stills that I frequently encountered, causing me to re-evaluate my assumptions regarding women and embroidery and forcing me to ask questions which I had previously avoided. In the course of my research, I began to question my position as to whether women’s needlework should be considered art or craft. I also began to question the significance, if any, of the embroidery in women’s lives during the eighteenth century. I discovered that as I asked these questions and continued to research further, I was usually able to answer the questions and strengthen my own arguments.
The information I was able to acquire through this research has provided a stable foundation upon which I hope to build my master’s thesis. I will continue in my pursuit of primary samples of the artwork created by women during the era and expand into a detailed cross-cultural analysis of their creative activities.