Memorial to Salome and Moses Brown

Embroidered mourning scenes became popular in the United States following the death of George Washington in 1799. In this finely worked example, Charlotte Brown commemorates her parents with a central classical plinth surmounted by a large urn flanked by a weeping willow tree—a common emblem of grief and rebirth--and a sturdy oak symbolizing endurance. A grieving woman and a young boy each hold floral tributes, while the two three-masted schooners sail toward the horizon, evoking maritime metaphors for the soul’s passage and resurrection.



Charlotte Brown has long been thought to be the daughter of Moses Brown, co-founder of Brown University, but genealogical research documents that Brown had no daughters. Although Charlotte’s identity remains uncertain, the composition, materials and techniques correspond closely to other early nineteenth-century Rhode Island silk embroideries. As was the custom, the faces, sky, and sea were painted in watercolor by a professional artist. However, the inscription on the tomb is unusual in that it was printed onto the silk ground fabric with mechanical typeface.