Independence Day is usually marked in fireworks and flags. This year, as the United States marks 250 years since its founding, it’s also being marked in Williamsburg through needle and thread, with an exhibition telling that story through embroidery rather than the usual rhetoric.
America’s Tapestry, open now at the Muscarelle Museum of Art at William & Mary until 6 September, brings together thirteen hand-embroidered panels, one for each of the original colonies. Each was stitched communally by artisans from New Hampshire to Georgia, and each tells a story chosen for what it adds to the standard account of the Revolution rather than what it repeats.
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Photo Credit: ‘Virginia’, by the Williamsburg Rose and Thistle Chapter of the Embroiderers’ Guild of America.