Needlework Picture, "St. Joseph's Near Emmettsburg" by Unknown Maker

Dateca. 1825

MediumSilk embroidery thread, chenille thread, ink, and paint on silk ground in a gided wooden frame with an eglomise glass mat

DimensionsFramed (H x W): 25 x 31 1/2in. (63.5 x 80cm) Overall (H x W): 16 1/4 x 22 1/2in. (41.3 x 57.2cm)

Credit LineGift of the John D. Rockefeller, 3rd, Fund, Inc., through the generosity and interest of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, 3rd, and members of the family

Object number1979.602.2

DescriptionThis silk and chenille embroidered and painted landscape scene prominently features the original building of St. Joseph’s school, with Emmetsburg visible in the background. The five-bay, two-story plus attic house is very architecturally rendered. The building has two chimneys and three dormer windows across the front. There are single-story additions on either end of the house. The right addition also has a covered porch on the side, while the left addition has another addition to its rear. The rear addition has a chimney. The cream or yellow siding of the building is stitched in silk thread while the roof is worked in chenille. The direction of the chenille stitches are changed to give dimension where needed, such as on the dormer windows. The windows, doors, and shutters are all inked and the lines are very precise and thin. The central bay in the second story is a door rather than a window that leads to what appears to be a Juliette balcony. The front door is located underneath that, at the first-story’s central bay. It is flanked by thick windows and topped with a semi-circular window. The door is shown open and two women stand on the small porch, which also has steps and handrails. The figures, door, and porch are all inked. The bushes in front of the house are worked in chenille which gives them a three-dimensional quality and separates them from the house.

To the left of the main house are a few additional structures. A four-bay, two story red brick building sits near the road with doors at either end of the front of the structure. The entire building is inked or painted, rather than stitched, with such precision that even the brick pattern is identifiable. The trees if front of it are stitched in chenille to visually pull them in front of the house as well as give them texture.
Between the brick building and the main house is a clapboard structure with a wooden shingle roof. Next to that is a small portion of a similar structure that has a chimney. Both the clapboard and brick buildings are surrounded by a white picket fence behind the horizontal board fence that lines the road.

On the road in front of the red brick building, a circular carriage approaches the main house, presumably to meet to the two figures standing in the doorway. The carriage is worked in gold silk thread with black silk for the top. Two figures are inked or painted inside the carriage, and a driver sits in the front. The driver’s clothes are stitched in silk, as is the horse.

The foreground scenery, a grassy lawn with various paths, is stitched in chenille to suggest texture of grass. The paths are stitched in silk with the stitch direction following the path. The difference in threads gives the grass a dimensionality that elevates it above the dirt of the path where nothing is growing. The chenille of the grass is worked in small stitches and the different colors are alternated to give shading. A fence stretches across the entire picture and is worked in chenille in long stitches over the shorter stitches of the grass. This again allows for a sense of three dimensionality. The tree to the right of the house is worked using French knots or bullion stitches to give the leafs texture.

The rest of the scenery is painted and includes a valley view of a village, presumably Emmettsburg. A church stands in the center of the town. On the right of the scene is a single cross on a hill. The rest of the scenery consists of green and gold rolling hills lined in trees. In the far distance, larger hills or mountains can be seen. The sky is blue with very circular clouds.

The needlework picture is in a three-inch gilded wooden frame, scoop molded with applied plaster decoration of anthemion leaves along inner edge, rope twist at center, and applied leaves at midpoints and corners of the outer edge. It has a gold-and-black eglomise glass mat.

STITCHES: French knot or bullion stitch, and satin stitch
Label TextSt. Joseph’s, the subject of this needlework, was a Catholic girls’ school begun by Elizabeth Seton, the first American-born saint. The structure in the center of the picture, the White House, was the first structure built for the school and contained the classrooms and the girls’ sleeping quarters. It can be seen in virtually all of the needlework pictures coming out of the school, many from the exact same point of view as seen in this picture. The students were rarely allowed to have visitors, so an approaching carriage, as shown in this scene, would have been an exciting moment.
MarkingsPainted in gold at the lower center of the black eglomise glass mat is "St JOSEPH'S NEAR EMMETTSBURG."
ProvenanceObtained by Arthur Sussel, Philadelphia, PA;
Sold to Abby Aldrich Rockefeller for use in Bassett Hall, Jan. 1935;
Given to CWF, 1979.

SCHOOL HISTORY: Saint Joseph’s Academy was founded by Elizabeth Seton, who later became the first American saint. The first parochial school in American, Saint Joseph’s taught both boarders and day students. Several needlework pictures and paintings by students of the school portray the buildings, whether as the main focus or in the background of mourning pictures. Though the paintings continued to add buildings as they were constructed, the needleworks generally did not.
The building portrayed, often called the White House, was the first building used for the school.