Portrait of Lydia Steele Bailey, by Jacob Eichholtz.
Married to Robert Bailey.
Bailey, Lydia Steele (1779-1869) held the position of City Printer of Philadelphia from 1830-1850 and was the first and only womna to do so. She taught herself how to set type, created over 800 prints, supported four children as a widow, and at one point in her career had over twenty male employees and apprentices.
Cross-stitch sampler on linen using cotton threads. Border of angle green vine with a single fruit in each. Within two horizontal lines of stitches are 2 stitched 1/2-inch high alphabets: top line is upper case; second line is lower case with "Lydia T. Coale" at the end.
Third line contains 1-inch high upper case letters from A to P; fourth line is Q to Z, followed by numerals 1 to 5. A horizontal border of stitches in dark blue underlines line 4.
Beneath: "JT Lydia Thomas Coale 1848 AT" ('T' for Thomas relatives?)
Display below is an assortment of flowers, branches, bids, heart and squares. A large container, piled high with red fruits at bottom center is flanked with "EC" on the left and "RC" on the right (some Coale relatives?)
Provenance
Donated by Mrs. Rachel Haviland of Lancaster, 7 Nov. 1941.
Remnants of liquid stains midway on both sides. Some sections of thread/cross stitches are completely missing, other are so light in color that they are hard to read. However, reds are still bright. Framing offers some protection, although (no indication) this may have been framed too early for use of acid-free materials or UV glass. Framer's label on back: "Myers Art Shop/Pictures and picture Framing/ 408 West Chestnut St./ Lancaster, PA."
