Virtual Tuesday Talk—“When shall we all meet again”: Emotional Embroidery in An Incarcerated State, 19th-21st Centuries

This talk will survey ten embroideries made by 200 years of incarcerated Americans in psychiatric hospitals, prisons, missionary schools, and sites of enslavement. Together, these items illustrate embroidery’s connections to mental health, creativity, and power. They demonstrate the capacity of stitch to pass the time, express emotions, calm down, distract, reflect, and rehabilitate, giving those who have lost much of their freedom a chance to regain a morsel of agency. Incarceration embroidery captures the stories of individuals who expressed their anguish and their ambitions through needlework.

Speaker: Dr. Isabella Rosner, Curator, Royal School of Needlework

This event is taking place online only. The speaker will not be present at the DAR Museum.

Photo caption: Alice Eugenia Ligon, Embroidered Garment, ca. 1949, embroidered muslin, cotton crochet; pencil; cotton rick-rack trim, 43 3/4 x 38 1/2 in. (111.1 x 97.8 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr., 1989.78.2.