Needlework Treasures from the Phila. Museum of Art
2001 Loan Exhibit

The Philadelphia Museum of Art, from its beginnings during the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, has become a preeminent international arts institution, with impressive collections in a multiplicity of media.

In honor of the Museum's 125th anniversary, the 2001 loan exhibition features rare and unusual American and European needlework treasures dating from the 16th through 19th centuries, drawn from the Costume and Textiles Department's more than 25,000 objects.

The ingenious manipulation of a needle and thread has created wonderfully diverse needlework techniques, from appliqué to embroidery and quilting to cutwork. Applied to equally heterogeneous objects, needlework embellishes household textiles such as bed furnishings and quilts, schoolgirl samplers, and garments and accessories from mittens to garters.

While professional stitchers of both genders produced expensive status symbols, mastery of the needle was for centuries an essential feminine skill, which could serve as a social accomplishment, a diversionary occupation, or a form of artistic expression.

This celebratory selection highlights not only the painstaking skill of those who created these exquisite objects, but the richness, depth, and breadth of one of the nation's oldest and largest collections of costume and textiles.