Georgia's Girlhood Embroidery: "Crowned with Glory and Immortality"

This fully illustrated catalogue by independent scholar and guest curator Kathleen Staples accompanies the exhibition of the same name at the Georgia Museum of Art from October 31, 2015 to February 28, 2016. Georgia's Girlhood Embroidery: "Crowned with Glory and Immortality" is the first comprehensive exhibition to focus on colonial and antebellum girlhood embroideries created either in Georgia or by Georgians. These embroideries, also known as samplers, include rows of alphabets, quotations in prose and verse, images of architecture and embellished floral borders. Needlework took place in many different settings: public and private, elective and required, urban and rural. In Georgia's Girlhood Embroidery, Staples takes readers into the lives of the young sampler makers and brings to light the history of feminine skills and girlhood education in the state. The catalogue includes twenty-two samplers from public and private collections, including those of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA), the Midway Museum, the Charleston Museum, Telfair Museums, St. Vincent's Academy of Savannah, Georgia, and the President James K. Polk Home and Museum.