Needlework Memorial to Tabitha B. Lamar by Rebecca Ann Lamar
Dateca. 1840
Attributed to
Rebecca Ann Lamar (1827-1843)
MediumSilk, silk chenille, silk ribbon, paint and ink on silk
DimensionsOH: 17 1/2" OW: 17 1/2"
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number2016.604.1
DescriptionThis is a square silk and paint memorial on silk worked with silk and silk chenille embroidery threads with silk ribbon work and an inked inscription: "Sacred to/ the memory of/ Tabitha B. Lamar./ Departed this life August/ 1830." The memorial consists of an urn on a plinth centered on a hillock worked in chenille threads with ribbon-worked flowers in shades of pink. The memorial urn is flanked by two large trees worked in silk chenille threads. The sky is painted in shades of blue.Stitches: couch, satin, straight
Label TextIn addition to receiving instruction from her aunt, Loretto R. Lamar (1818-1905), Rebecca Ann Lamar attended at least three different schools, making it difficult to attribute this piece to one particular instructor. Before January 28, 1839, she attended an unnamed school in Lumpkin, Georgia, possibility under the tutelage of a Miss. Nixon. She continued to attend school in Lumpkin, with some interruptions, until she transferred to the Georgia Female College in Macon, Georgia on October 1, 1840. Rebecca Ann left the college before December 15, 1840, to attend to her uncle, Jefferson Jackson Lamar (1804-1840), who had suffered a gunshot wound. After her uncle’s death, Rebecca Ann transferred to the Brownwood Young Ladies’ Collegiate Institute in LaGrange, Georgia; she began instruction there before February 8, 1841. Neither the Georgia Female College nor Brownwood included needlework in their curriculum, however the Georgia Female College did teach a course on domestic economy. It is possible that Rebecca Ann completed her needlework picture while attending school in Lumpkin before October 1840.
The ribbon-work flowers are characteristic of Moravian design. It is possible that the instructor who oversaw the completion of this picture was educated by a Moravian instructor, possibly at the Salem Female Academy in Winston Salem, North Carolina.
Inscribed"Sacred to/ the memory of/ Tabitha B. Lamar/ Departed this life August/ 1830."
ProvenanceThis needlework picture descended with a portrait of Rebecca Evalina Lamar Polk (d. 1909) to Rebecca Evalina's son, William Polk (1862-1927) and his wife, Ella Baillio Hayes (1870-1963), to their daughter Ella Polk (1904-1966) and her husband John Alexander Brough (1897-1977), to their son John Alexander Brough, Jr. The next recorded owners of the piece were Bill and Joyce Subjack of Neverbird Antiques, from whom Colonial Williamsburg purchased the piece in 2016.
History of Maker
Rebecca Ann Lamar (1827-1843) was the only daughter of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar (1798-1859) and his wife, Tabitha Burwell Jordan (1809-1830). When Mirabeau left Georgia to travel to Texas in 1835, he placed Rebecca Ann under the care of his brother, Jefferson Jackson Lamar (1804-1840) and his wife, Rebecca (1813-1838), the parents of Rebecca Evalina Lamar. Rebecca Ann died in Macon, Georgia on July 29, 1843.
