Press Release
FLUSHING, QUEENS’ BOWNE HOUSE AWARDED CONSERVATION TREATMENT GRANT TO CONSERVE EARLY SCHOOLGIRL SAMPLER
For further information and interviews: bownehouseoffice@gmail.com
A $3300 grant from the Greater Hudson Heritage Network (GHNN) and the New York Council on the Arts (NYSC) will allow the Bowne House Historical Society to conserve a 19th century sampler in the museum’s collection. Bowne House is one of 30 organizations in New York State to receive a portion of the $178,873 allocated to stabilize and preserve historical objects in New York museums. 50% of the funding for conservation treatment projects in Nassau and Suffolk Counties and New York City is generously provided by the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation. Bowne House is one of the recipients of Gardiner Foundation funding.
“Mary Ann Brown’s sampler York Town May 18th 1831.”
The poem Mary Ann Brown stitched, in part, on her sampler was written by two English Romantic poets, Jane and Ann Taylor, who were very popular for children in the 1800s.
Presently undergoing conservation at the Textile Conservation Workshop in South Salem, New York, the sampler is one of several 18th and 19th century examples of schoolgirl art in the collection of the Bowne House Historical Society. It is described in an article in the Queens Ledger about a recent sampler assessment conducted at Bowne House (https://queensledger.com/2024/10/10/flushing-queens-bowne-house-awarded-textile-conservation-grant/). The sampler is signed in cross stitch in the textile’s bottom register, “Mary Ann Brown’s sampler York Town May 18th 1831.” While further research is needed to identify her, Mary Ann Brown lived (or attended school) in what is now Yorktown on the Northern border of present-day Westchester County, New York.
The Bowne House Historical Society offers tours and special events throughout the year for the general public as well as customized tours for students and adults. Most of the approximately 5,000 objects in the museum’s collection are original to the house; a rarity found in few cultural institutions open to the public. On view are fine examples of English and American furniture, textiles, ceramics, and decorative art. The Bowne House archives, an extensive collection spanning three hundred years is available to the general public at www.bownehouse.org/archives. The archives document the history and civic activities of the Bowne and Parsons’ families – occupants of the house from the 17th through the 20th centuries.
Sampler conservation funding will be supported through the NYSCA/GHHN Conservation Treatment Grant Program administered by the Greater Hudson Heritage Network. This program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional support is provided from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation. Conservation treatment will be completed by Meredith Wilcox-Levine of the Textile Conservation Workshop, Inc. in South Salem, New York.