A Mother's Pearls

A Mother's Pearls

Thomas Seir Cummings

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The artist composed this festoon necklace from portraits of his children, nine ivory ovals linked as a necklace for his wife, Jane Cook (1806-1889). As portrayed, the children range in age from one to sixteen; the firstborn, Charles, died in 1831 and is represented posthumously in the smallest oval at center. The other children are (left to right): Lydia M. (1837-1927), George F. (1835-1910), Henry R. (1829-1873), Thomas A. (1825-1859), Rebecca C. (1827-1859), Jane E. (1831-1903), Charles P. (1833-1879), and Sarah A. (1840-1919). The Cummingses later had five more children.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.