Current and coming; needle arts in New York city.

The New-York Historical Society's extensive and diverse collections reveal much about how New Yorkers have lived and worked over the course of four centuries. The aspect of that history currently in focus at the society is sewing. Home Sewn: Three Centuries of Stitching History, an exhibition on view there until April 18, is largely drawn from the society's holdings and is organized into six thematic sections. Included are samplers, embroidered pictures, portraits, sewing implements and patterns, quilts, clothing, linens, fabric swatches, photographs, and other documents.

Among the rare exhibits is a needlework picture of biblical scenes worked by Christina Arcularius (later Mrs. Samuel Barker Harper) in 1792. It is shown with a portrait of her executed in 1830 by an unidentified artist. Arcularius is thought to have executed the needlework while she was enrolled in a boarding school in New Rochelle, New York. Another fascinating survival is a group of embroidery patterns dating from about 1786 to 1815 that were owned by Mary Ann Vache. These are accompanied by miniature portraits of Mary Ann and her husband, John Vache. Mary Ann clipped embroidery patterns from the periodical Ladies' Magazine, traced them from unknown sources, and made them up herself. The pinholes and extensive wear on the patterns demonstrate that she used them repeatedly.

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Many of the objects in the show are solidly documented to their owner or creator, and in some cases numerous pieces made or owned by one woman afford great insight into how the needle arts were practiced over a period of one woman's lifetime. Irene Meladakis Zambelli, a Greek immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1914, sewed throughout her life, first as a professional dressmaker and then as a hobby, following her marriage to ...