Phebe Warner Coverlet

Sarah Furman Warner Williams

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Made in about 1803 for Phebe Warner of New York, this bedcover's design relates more closely to eighteenth-century sources than to those of the nineteenth century. The maker was influenced by the central flowering-tree motif common to popular imported Indian bed hangings, called "palampores," as well as by the pastoral landscape needlework pictures often worked by young women. The coverlet's linen ground is appliquéd with large-patterned cotton chintzes and printed linens, as well as smaller-patterned cotton calicos and plaids, most of which were made in England.

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