Both men and women working as embroiderers advertised their ability to draw patterns and execute embroidery in gold, silver, and silk. Due to the law of coverture, whereby a married woman could not enter into a contract or be responsible for debts in her own name, it is possible that the men’s names in some of these advertisements actually hide the work of the women in their family.
Ad from The New York Gazette, September 6, 1773.
Ad from Freeman's Journal, October 20, 1784.
