Memorial to Captain John Allen

Memorials—contemplative tributes to specific deceased relatives and friends—became widely popular in America in the first decades of the 19th century. These compositions often combine intricate needlework in the trees and landscape with watercolor painting, which permits greater detail in the rendering of the grieving figure’s face, hands, and costume. Elizabeth Allen was born in 1792, the daughter of Captain John Allen (1764–1811) and Hannah Robinson Allen (born in 1767). Her parents’ families lived in Barre, Massachusetts, a rural community west of Worcester in the central part of the state. Her parents married in Barre on December 18, 1788. One of seven children, Elizabeth stitched this tender tribute to her deceased father when she was nineteen. She died just five years later, in 1816, at age 24.