Embroidered View of Harvard Hall
Silk, wool, and gilt-silver yarns on open plain-weave linen attributed to Mary Leverett Denison Rogers, circa early 18th century
19.6 cm x 25.1 cm
This early embroidery depicts Harvard Hall, built in 1676 but destroyed by fire in 1764. It is likely that Mary Leverett, the daughter and granddaughter of Harvard presidents, worked this piece as a gift for her second husband Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, a Harvard graduate. The piece is worked in the basic half-cross, or tent, stitch, a decorative thread crossing diagonally the intersecting threads of the linen. Some of the architectural details of Harvard Hall are confused with nearby Stoughton Hall. The embroiderer also replaced the cupola with a swarming bee-hive and a variation upon a quotation from Virgil, which roughly translates, "They keep out drones from these premises."
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