Columbia's Daughters: Girlhood Embroidery from the District of Columbia

Following on the heels of A Maryland Sampling: Girlhood Embroidery, 1738-1860, Gloria Seaman Allen applies her formidable research and narrative skills to the fledgling District of Columbia, bringing to light heretofore unknown details and full-color images for nearly 130 samplers and pictorial embroideries stitched in the first years of the nation's capital. Columbia's Daughters examines the political, economic, and social dynamics of Alexandria, Georgetown and Washington City, the three urban centers that merged to create the District of Columbia as the nation entered the nineteenth century. Here are the lives and little-known schools of needlework teachers and students who witnessed the emergence of a new federal identity in a turbulent time—and left embroidered records of what they saw.

Many of the samplers presented here are published for the first time. Moreover, Columbia's Daughters examines the cultural, religious, and racial diversity at our nation's political center. The District's girlhood embroideries display a wide array of needlework traditions documenting the influence of immigrants from Scotland, England, and France, and the migration of patterns and motifs from Philadelphia, Maryland, and Virginia.