POSSIBLY WORKED BY AGNESS M. CANDLISH, VIRGINIA, CIRCA 1820-1821

Depicting Maine, the twenty-third state admitted to the Union in 1820, this well-preserved map needlework was probably executed around this time and before Missouri joined the Union in August 1821. Providing a lesson in geography as well as needlework, this embroidered map illustrates advances in female education in early nineteenth-century America. According to its bill of sale from Marguerite Riordan, this map was worked by "Agness M. Candlish" of Virginia; while this individual has not been found in the documentary record, she may have been related to the McCandlish family of Scottish descent living in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio. See Elizabeth Black, McCandlish-Black Family History (Worthington, Ohio, 1935); for related examples see Ethel Stanwood Bolton and Eva Johnston Coe, American Samplers (New York, 1973), pls. XXIV, LXXI, LXX and CV (additional information provided by Carol and Stephen Huber).