Berlin Historical Society Open House and Program
By Editor at April 1, 2024 | 9:30 am | Print
The compelling tale of a masterpiece of American folk art, the story of its discovery, and Berlin’s poignant connection to the young woman who created it, will be the topic of a program on Saturday, April 9, at 2 p.m. at the Berlin Historical Society, 305 Main Street, Kensington as part of the museum’s Spring Open House (1-4 pm). The remarkable story will be recounted by Elizabeth Abbe, former director of public outreach at the Connecticut Historical Society, and Diana McCain, a historian and author of numerous articles and books on Connecticut history. The program is free, but attendees must register by calling the museum at 860-828-5114.
The masterpiece is a finely stitched needlework titled The First, Second and Last Scene of Mortality, made between 1775 and 1783 by Prudence Punderson of Preston, Connecticut. The powerfully evocative needlework depicts a young woman, believed to be Prudence Punderson herself, seated at a table, with a baby in a cradle to one side and a coffin with the initials “P.P.” on the lid on the other. It represents the stages of life, cradle to grave. The coffin symbolizes the inevitability of death, which the high mortality rate of Prudence’s time made a looming presence for young and old alike.
The “mortality piece,” as the work has come to be known, is unique in several ways. Most eighteenth-century women demonstrated their skill with the needle by stitching decorative flowers or fanciful pastoral scenes. Prudence Punderson chose to do a realistic self-portrait, unique in early American women’s art, setting herself in a meticulously detailed domestic setting that is a rare source of information about the interior furnishings of a Revolutionary War era house. Prudence depicted clothing and furniture, a checkered rug and window curtains. An elegant mirror is shown shrouded in cloth as was the custom in homes when someone had died.
Prudence Punderson herself was an unusual personality in a turbulent time of divided loyalties. Born in 1758 in Preston, she enjoyed a better education than most women of her era, and came of age during the American Revolution. She became engaged to Dr. Timothy Rossiter.
Prudence’s father, Ebenezer Punderson, was a Loyalist who sided with the British. Considered a traitor by Connecticut patriots, Punderson fled to British-held Long Island. Prudence and the rest of the family joined him in 1778; Prudence broke her engagement to Timothy Rossiter, who was by now a surgeon in the Continental Army.
Prudence endured five years of hardship, suffering, and danger in exile. In 1783, America having won its war for independence, she and Timothy Rossiter, with whom she’d re-established contact, were married on Long Island. They soon moved to Berlin, where in July of 1784 Prudence gave birth to their daughter, Sophia.
Sadly, the “mortality piece” Prudence had stitched with such skill proved to be a harbinger of her future. She died two months after Sophia’s birth, only twenty-six years old. She was buried in Maple Cemetery on Worthington Ridge in Berlin.
The “mortality piece” descended through Prudence’s family until the 1960s, when through an extraordinary twist of fate it became part of the collections of the Connecticut Historical Society. It has been recognized as an iconic image in the story of women’s history and American folk art.Phone: 860-828-5281
