Embroidered sampler

Embroidered sampler

Mary Parker

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This alphabet sampler is enlivened by a grand five-bay, three-story house flanked by leafy trees with birds perched on the branches. The delicately stitched balustrade or "widow’s walk" along the eaves of the roof and the pattern of the pickets in the fence and gates reflect the maker’s interest in the stylish decorative elements of Federal architecture.

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.