Sewing and Learning 2023 #4

The Media Gallery

Education | Video

Roxana Alger Geffen

DETAILS

Part of Stowe Prize 2022

Explore how and why sentimental sewing—or adding a moral message—was used by Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionists, and activists historically as a way of speaking out at a time when their voices were often excluded from public forums.

Our Sewing and Learning Workshop includes discussion of the ethics of craft materials, a step-by-step craft instruction, research on the histories embedded in the abolitionist political stitch, and inspirational work from contemporary craft-activist, or “craftivist,” artists.

Download the sewing pattern

Kits are available for purchase through our online Museum Store.

Related Library Items

Sewing and Learning 2023, Sewing and Learning 2023 #2, Sewing and Learning 2023 #3

Description

Description: Roxana Alger Geffen is a multi-disciplinary artist who shows her work nationally and internationally. She has a BA with a major in Visual Art from Columbia University and an MFA in painting from Boston University. Her work practice consists of coaxing diverse materials–found objects, litter, heirlooms, handwoven textiles–into beautiful but uneasy assemblages. Her pieces center on the moments of energetic conflict and tender reconciliation that result from combining things that don’t go together.

She lives and works in Washington, D.C. with her husband and three children.

School Group Interest Form

School Group Interest Form 2024

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

School name:

Please suggest three dates and times when your group would like to visit. (Note: the Stowe Center is closed on Sunday and Tuesday.)

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The Stowe Center requires one adult per every 10 students.

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Are you interested in scheduling a joint visit with our neighbor, The Mark Twain House and Museum?

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If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

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Adult Group Interest Form

Group Tour Interest Form 2022

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

Group Name:

Name of Primary Contact:(Required)

Contact Email:(Required)

Contact Phone Number:(Required)

What date would you like to visit? (The Stowe Center typically books group tours for Thursday through Sunday visits.)

Expected number of visitors:(Required)

Please enter a number from 20 to 42.

Please indicate the number of adults, seniors, and children expected in your group:

Are there special accommodations that can help us serve you best?

Are you interested in a joint visit with our neighbor, The Mark Twain House and Museum?

Yes, please.

No, thank you.

If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

Yes

Isabella Beecher Hooker

Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker (1822-1907)
An ardent member of the woman’s suffrage movement, Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker joined in the cause along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Isabella was the first child of Lyman Beecher and his second wife, Harriet Porter Beecher.

Isabella began her education at Catharine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary and lived with her sister Mary Perkins. In 1841 she married John Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford. John Hooker was a lawyer and an abolitionist.

In the early 1860s Isabella got involved in the woman’s suffrage movement. Isabella joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as a member of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1869. She was a founding member of the Connecticut Woman’s Suffrage Association. Isabella’s ideas of equality were influenced by John Stuart Mills’ On Liberty and the Subjection of Women.

In 1871, Isabella organized the annual convention of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in Washington D.C. and presented her argument before the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate. Her husband, John Hooker, believed in his wife and supported her activities. He helped Isabella draft a bill to the Connecticut Legislature giving married women the same property rights as their husbands. The bill passed in 1877. Isabella annually submitted a bill granting women the right to vote, but it did not pass in her lifetime.