Bowne Women, the New York Female Association, & the Flushing Female Association

Talk & Presentation at Bowne House by Ellen M. Spindler

Embroidered sampler made at the Female Association Quaker School by Charlotte Gardner for Mary M. Perkins, a member of the Female Association, 1813, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Date: Sunday, March 23, 2025

Time: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Location: 37-01 Bowne Street, Flushing, New York 11354

Tickets: $15 General Admission; $12 Senior Admission

(No pre-registration required. Tickets are purchased upon arrival.)

What to Expect: Ellen M. Spindler, Bowne House collection volunteer, will be giving a talk about the New York and Flushing Female Associations, both founded in part by Bowne women, who commenced free schools in Manhattan and Flushing in the early 1800s. The New York Female Association founded free schools to teach indigent girls (not affiliated with other societies), while the Flushing Female Association founded a free school to teach first mixed race students, and then solely African-American students, some of whom were children of former Quaker enslaved parents. These schools used samplers as both a fund-raising mechanism and literacy teaching tool and several images of these samplers will be shown during the talk.

A tour of Bowne House is included in admission.