Southern domestic needlework of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries often has been viewed as a traditional and, perhaps, parochial product of female hands. Family anecdotes and early scholarship have reinforced the modern perception of needlework as simply a homely vernacular artifact that added to the comfort and sometimes economic well-being of the household. Most ornamental work, however, served more than a practical purpose. In particular, schoolgirl embroideries – samplers and pictorial subjects – and quilts and coverlets, made by younger and older women alike, are tangible expressions of the workers’ refined social and economic status in Southern society. These objects represented for the needleworker and her family, as well as those in her community, access to money, surplus goods for barter, imported goods, education, and time.

Adapted from "Tangible Displays of Refinements: Southern Needlework at MESDA" in The Magazine Antiques (1/2007) article by Kathleen Staples, independent scholar.