Young girls in the eighteenth century mastered the basic skills of needlework at an early age by producing samplers ornamented with alphabets and individual, unrelated motifs. Once assured of their competency, the more rewarding challenge of making needlepoint pictures was undertaken which gave the embroiderer the pleasure of seeing a complete pictorial image unfold as the work progressed. Here a gentleman and a lady pose as a shepherd and a shepherdess surrounded by grazing animals. Pastoral scenes of this kind, worked in wool and silk on canvas, were commonly depicted on both English and American needlework pictures of the eighteenth century.

While inscriptions rarely appear on pictorial embroideries, the lower edge of this piece identifies its maker: “Elizabeth Banister was born June the 18th Anno Domene 1724 – finished this work December 1735 in the 11th year of her age.” In perpetuating her sense of accomplishment, Elizabeth Banister provides her name, age, the date of completion, and a fact more commonly omitted, the precise date of her birth.