WROUGHT BY ROSANNA MCCUNE, MID-ATLANTIC STATES, DATED 1817

This composition of this memorial needlework was copied by Rosanna McCune from the widely circulated engraving by Samuel Seymour (active 1796-1823) and published by J. Savage in 1804 and 1814. As noted by Milly McGehee in her invoice, Rosanna's rendition of the scene is delightfully "folksy" and the diminutive painted deer at the lower right are particularly illustrative of Rosanna's individual hand. Other interpretations of the printed source include a more academic example formerly in the collection of Betty Ring wrought by Catharine Kunkel, probably from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in about 1818 (Betty Ring, "Memorial Embroideries by American Schoolgirls," The Magazine Antiques (October 1971), fig. 1). The creator of the needlework picture offered here was very likely Rosanna McClune (1805-1855) of Southampton township in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, located just forty miles southwest of Harrisburg. Rosanna was baptized in the Presbyterian church, the daughter of John McCune (1769-1832) and Bathsheba Sterrett (1766-1847). She remained unmarried and in 1850 was living with her older brother Robert (1794-1874). For more on related works, see Davida Tenenbaum Deutsch and Betty Ring, "Homage to Washington in Needlework and Prints," The Magazine Antiques (February 1981), pp. 415, 418, fig. 24, pl. XIV.