Mary Zeller

Mary Zeller
1789 sampler by Ann Heyl
BornDecember 14, 1745 
Lower Merion Township 
DiedDecember 30, 1818  (aged 73)
OccupationNeedleworker 

Mary Coeleman Zeller (December 14, 1745[1]– December 30, 1818) was a colonial American needlework teacher who operated a school in Philadelphia from 1789 to 1808.[2]

Mary Zeller was born on December 14, 1745 in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Jacob and Catharine Coeleman.[3] In 1768, she married Johann George Zeller and they would have five children. She was a widow by 1790. She died on December 30, 1818.[4]

Samplers from Zeller's school are the earliest known of a larger group of samplers featuring a stepped-terrace motif and created from the 1790s to 1830. Zeller's samplers usually feature a castle or Georgian mansion. Some feature animals like cows, goats, and stags. Most feature an Angus Dei (Lamb of God) motif that is traced back to the pattern book Newes Modelbuch In Kupffer Germacht (1604) by Johann Sibmacher.[4]

The earliest known sampler from Zeller's school was made by Ann Heyl in 1789 and is now in the Toldeo Museum of Art. Other Zeller school samplers were made by Elizabeth Stine (1793), Catharine Goodman (c. 1803), and Mary Snowden (1806).[4][2] Other samplers that may be from Zeller's school include ones by Margaret Gibson (1798),[5] Margaret Lasky (1795),[6] and Rachel Boughten (1807).[7]

References

  1. ^ Ancestry.com, U.S., Selected States Dutch Reformed Church Membership Records, 1701-1995: First Reformed Church, Marriages, Register of Communicants, Baptisms, 1809-1930
  2. ^ a b Edmonds, Mary Jaene (1991). Samplers & samplermakers : an American schoolgirl art, 1700-1850. New York : Rizzoli ; [Los Angeles] : Los Angeles County Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-8478-1396-4 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ^ Spofford, Ernest (1929). Armorial Families of America. Bailey, Banks & Biddle Company. p. 400.
  4. ^ a b c Ring, Betty (1993), Girlhood embroidery: American samplers and pictorial needlework, 1650 - 1850; 1. 2. 2, New York: Knopf, ISBN 978-0-394-55009-1
  5. ^ https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5598262
  6. ^ "Margaret Laskey". samplings.com. Retrieved 2025-12-07.
  7. ^ "sampler from Stephen and Carol Huber". antiquesamplers.com. Archived from the original on 2024-11-05. Retrieved 2025-12-07.
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