American Furniture, Folk & Decorative Arts

Sarah Wister was the eldest child of Quaker merchant Daniel Wister and Lowry Jones. Her Grandfather John Wister built Grumblethorpe as a summer house in Germantown in 1744. It became the Wister's year around home after the yellow fever epidemic. It was the home to Sally Wister for most of her life. During 1777 and 1778 Sarah, called Sally, kept a journal in the form of letters to her friend Deborah Norris recounting the details of life under British occupation. The complete journal, " A True Narrative: Being a Quaker Maiden's Account of her Experiences with Officers of the Continental Army 1777-1778," was published in 1902 and this silhouette, the only known likeness of Sarah Wister, was illustrated. A sampler worked by Sarah in 1773 is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and published in Betty Ring, Girlhood Embroidery American Samplers & Pictorial Needlework 1650-1850
(1993) p.337, Fig. 354.