Women and Girls as Producers of English Domestic Needlework, 1550-1700

Dr Lynn Hulse explores the attitudes towards female education following Reformation, and the impact this had on English domestic needlework

Detailed Casket on an orange background
Date
Past Event
Price
£5

Please note, this is a past event. 

In this talk, Dr Lynn Hulse will explore the prevailing attitude towards female education in the 150 years following the Reformation, and the impact on English domestic needlework; to give a voice to some of the 'invisible hands' who created these 'curious works'.

The intricacy of the stitching found in early English needlework, like the raised work casket with scenes from the Old Testament (c. 1660s), recently donated to the Ulster Museum by Lanto Synge, continue to astound and delight viewers today in the modern world. Equally surprising is the fact that several objects preserved in museums and private collections were stitched by children and adolescents. Martha Edlin’s casket dating from 1671, for example, is a remarkable achievement for an eleven-year-old girl. 

This talk will examine the environment in which girls from middle and upper-class backgrounds learned to ply their needle, the training they received and the images they chose to stitch.

Formerly Archivist at the Royal School of Needlework, Dr Lynn Hulse is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Royal Historical Society, and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Broderers. She is also co-founder of Ornamental Embroidery, which runs workshops, firsthand study sessions and lecture programmes in museums, art galleries and historic houses across the UK and North America. Recent exhibitions include The Needle’s Excellency: contemporary raised work at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Spring 2017) and the Knitting and Stitching Show (Autumn 2018), and The Needle’s Art: contemporary hand embroidery inspired by an early Tudor pattern book at the Bodleian Library, Oxford (Winter 2021-2022). Lynn has published widely on the history of needlework from the sixteenth to the early twentieth centuries and is the editor of May Morris: Art and Life (2017) and The Needle’s Excellency: English raised embroidery (2108). Her most recent book, May Morris Designs, was published by the Ashmolean Museum in 2025.

What to know

Everything you need to know about this event

Booking is required for this event, and tickets are £5 per person. Please note, tickets to our Ashes to Fashion exhibition must be purchased separately.

This talk will take place in the Lecture Theatre in Ulster Museum.

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