The Orphans

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In early-nineteenth-century America, bereaved families memorialized their deceased loved ones in highly personalized and intimate ways. Memorial embroideries and watercolors, which almost all date between about 1800 and 1840 and most frequently originated in New England, were very often done by young women, who learned this art form at school or in the seminary. The young artist of this image (perhaps depicted in self-portrait as the older child here) employed the most popular formula for such pictures, positioning the bereaved children beside an urn atop a large pedestal. The title inscribed below the pedestal reveals that these children mourn the death of their parents.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art