1840 - 1880 Elizabeth McEuen Smith's Indian Palampore
date: label: date made
content: 1840-1880
name: label: maker
content: unknown
notes: label: Description
content: This whole-cloth quilt was made from an Indian palampore, about 1780, that according to the donor was given to Thomas Sully (1783-1872) by a woman whose portrait he had painted. An inscription written in ink on the palampore before it was lined and quilted states:
label: Description
content: “. . . Thomas Sully This Quilt was purchased 1736 of a Smuggler of East India goods in the Isle of White [sic], England (Belonging to my late friend Mifs Bradford. Elizabeth Smith Charleston.”
label: Description
content: While the date in the inscription appears to be 1736, the design of the palampore is more typical of the latter half of the 18th century.
label: Description
content: Thomas Sully painted Elizabeth McEuen Smith’s portrait in 1823 (now in the collection of the Honolulu Academy of Arts). He painted another of her sisters, Emily and Mary McEuen (Los Angeles County Museum of Art). Elizabeth was born in 1795 in Philadelphia, Pa. She married Charles Willis Smith in 1817. Elizabeth died in Georgetown, D.C., in 1839.
label: Description
content: A small stamp, possibly an agent’s stamp in Tamil appears in the same area as the inscription. The palampore quilt top was both mordant-painted (a chemical process to fix a dye), dyed, and hand-painted, in Madras, India. It was probably quilted and lined in the mid-19th century.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States
topic: label: Subject
content: Quilting
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
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content: Art
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content: Quilts
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content: Textiles
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content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Nancy Harper Wheeler
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.T13945
label: accession number
content: 272175
label: catalog number
content: T13945
objectType: label: Object Name
content: quilt
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: fabric, cotton (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: thread, cotton (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: filling, cotton (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 114 in x 87 in; 288 cm x 220 cm