unsigned.
17 1/4 x 20 1/4 inches.

Deerfield Academy was unofficially established by a group of fifteen residents of Deerfield in 1878, acting as "Proprietors of the New School House." They intended to provide a higher grade of instruction to local children that would rival those of more elite but potentially degenerative Boston institutions, ripe with the "innumerable temptations" of urban life. The school opened to students of both sexes in January 1799 and espoused a liberal arts curriculum of Latin, Greek, reading, writing, English grammar, geography, anthropology, and mathematics.

For a discussion of similar works in this medium from the Deerfield Academy, see Suzanne L. Flynt, Ornamental and Useful Accomplishments: Schoolgirl Education and Deerfield Academy, 1800-1830. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association: Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, Massachusetts, 1988.