Embroidery of Gratitude

By Vahe H. Apelian

The embroidery in the picture measures approximately 4 feet by 4 feet. it was made available to the Armenian readership for the very first time by Anna Lee Hein-Langlitz and Danette Hein-Snider, the grandnieces of the beloved American missionary in Kessab, Miss E.M. Chambers. I  reported about the embroidery in Keghart.com on November 16, 2009, see “A Century-old Relic Comes to Light – Embroidery of Gratitude”.

The embroidery most likely was presented to Miss Chambers sometime late 1911 or early 1912 as she brought it with her when she returned home in Iowa in May 1912. The embroidery most probably was sewn by the women of Kessab and was presented to her as an acknowledgment of her dedicated services to the community at large between from 1904 to1912. 

The inscriptions on the embroidery are both in English and in Armenian. The following is sewn along the upper portion: “TO MISS E M CHAMBERS A MEMORY OF GRATITUDE”

 

“WE WILL NEVER FORGET” is sewn in the middle around what appears to be a cross.

The Armenian inscription, along the lower portion of the embroidery, reads: “Երախտապարտ Քեսապի Հ.Յ.Դաշնակցութիւնէն”, “IN GRATITUDE FROM KESSAB ARMENIAN REVOLUTIONARY FEDERATION”. 

The battle-hardened Armenian Revolutionary Federation is not an organization that would have been swayed by easy sentiments. Its members must have believed that they had every reason to express their feelings of gratitude to her to have with her thenceforth throughout the remaining years of her life. 

Miss Effie Chamber’s missionary work in Kessab extended from 1904 to 1912. She left a legacy of goodwill and was endearingly remembered well into my youth.

The embroidery is an undisputed historical piece. Each and every one of us owes a degree of gratitude to the Chambers family for safeguarding the embroidery in the family in Iowa for the past over 100 years. When I offered Anna Lee that I will cover the expenses to have the embroidery professionally photographed, she declined. She taught the heat and the flashlight in the photographer’s studio might damage the embroidery. As a result, we have these pictures taken by her daughter at her home.

Such has been the care that Chambers family has displayed in safeguarding part of our history in Iowa, both symbolically, in way of the embroidery rendered by a grateful people, and in perpetuating the goodwill towards the Armenians by one of their own, Miss Effie Chambers.