Needlework on Paper

Artist/Maker
Berry, Mary
Place Made
Prince George’s County Maryland United States of America
Date Made
1792
Medium
silk on paper
Dimensions
HOA 7; WOA 6 (framed)
Accession Number
4347.1
Description
DESCRIPTION: Needlework picture; silk on paper depicting a hummingbird in flight between a stem with a pink and white rose and two buds to the left and a stem of small blue flowers to the right.

INSCRIPTION: Paper label on the back of modern frame “Worked by Mrs. Otho B. Beall/ when she was 12 years old/ 1792.”

MAKER: Mary Berry (1780-1853) was the daughter of Zachariah (1749-1845), a planter, and Mary (Williams) Berry of “Concord”, Prince George’s County, Maryland. Mary married her cousin, Otho Berry Beall (1790-1853), son of Samuel Brook Beall (1762- 1842) and his wife Elinor (Berry) Beall. Mary and Otho Beall lived at “Westphalia,” also known as “White House Place,” on White House Road near Ritchie in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Mary and Otho had three children: William Zachariah Beall (1815-1858), Washington Jeremiah Beall (1818-1895), and Zachariah Berry Beall (1825-1859).

RELATED OBJECTS: The MESDA Collection includes portraits of Mary and Otho Berry Beall painted by the artist Lewis Clephan around 1825 (MESDA Acc. 4347.2 & 3).

History
This needlework picture and the portraits of Mary Berry and Otho Beall descended in the Beall family and came out of Mt. Lubentia, one of the family homes owned at one time by Otho Berry Beall and given by him to his son, Washington Jeremiah, upon his marriage to Mary Ann Magruder in 1840. The signatures of Zachariah Berry Beall and Martha E. Addison (who became his wife in 1856) are pencilled in the plaster of the East wall, 2nd floor hall of Mt. Lubentia.

Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Forrest D. Bowie in memory of Mr. Forrest D. Bowie