Collections record Beta

Needlework - "Flora"

2013-134-1

Silk and watercolor on silk embroidery worked in 1802 by Harriot Pettibone while attending the Litchfield Female Academy. The embroidery depicts "Flora", the Roman goddess of flowers and the season of spring. Female figure in center wears Roman style attire with a wreath of flowers on her head, and another at her feet on the ground. She stands in a garden with flowers and trees. A body of water and two buildings can be seen in the distance behind her. The central oval pictorial is border at top and bottom by floral swags. A bow is applied to the center of the top swag in a thin metallic roping. Below the bottom swag is embroidered "HARRIOT PETTIBONE/ 1802". This signature and date are outlined using the same metallic roping that the maker used to execute the bow at top.

Harriot Pettibone of Norfolk, Connecticut was the daughter of Augustus and Susan Curtis Pettibone. Augustus, a lawyer and politician, had studied at the Litchfield Law School as a young man. Following this tradition he sent his daughter Harriot to study in Litchfield at Sarah Pierce's Female Academy in 1802.

There are five known existing needlework depictions of "Flora" from the Litchfield Female Academy. In addition to the embroidery completed by Harriot Pettibone, there are two additional depictions of "Flora" completed by sisters, Melissa Hays Higley and Hilpah Hays Goodrich, in 1802. These two needleworks are held in the collection of the Salmon Brook Historical Society. Additional the Litchfield Historical Society holds another embroidery of "Flora" created by LFA student Lucy Russell Hill sometime between the years 1799 and 1806. The Hartford Steam Boiler Company has in its collection an additional depiction of "Flora" that was worked in 1803 by Rebecca Couch Denison.

• Pettibone, Harriot

1802

Height 19"; Width 18"

• silk
• watercolor
• metal