The Embroiderers' Guild of America acknowledges the value of needlework in art and history by advancing the highest standards of excellence in its practice. The 19th National Exhibition is a representative selection in the best of artistic and technical works.

It is through education, exhibition, preservation, collection, and research the Embroiderers' Guild of America stimulates appreciation for and celebrates the heritage of embroidery. It embraces both traditional and contemporary needlework while expanding the perception of embroidery as an artform.

From samplers, to maps, from books to sculpture, from clothing and jewelry, to vessels and games, the 19th National Exhibition showcases objects created and embellished with the threaded needle. The examples not only demonstrate the ability of embroidery to be an expressive artform, but their creation also keeps alive traditions of stitchery that would otherwise be lost. This exhibition is the emissary of the art form and shows the wide variety of materials and techniques being used in contemporary embroidery.

The Embroiders' Guild of America National Exhibit Committee sought original and adapted works done with "a threaded needle" for this juried exhibition. Jurors included: Edith Anderson Feisner, fiber artist, teacher and author of Color Studies; Lee Malerich, contemporary fiber artist and teacher; and Gail Harker, national and international teacher and textile artist.

Harry Miller’s skill and imagination as a photographer has left invaluable images of the Arkansas White River Country in the first decade of the 20th century.  Rural life, transportation, African-Americans, and landscape are all subjects of Miller’s body of work.

In addition to a studio practice, Miller was a regular contributor to the Arkansas Sketchbooks, a magazine designed as a forum to nurture the literary and artistic scene of Arkansas in the early 20th century.  Miller’s images included in this journal provide some of the best documentation of African-Americans living in the region at that time. They also provide stunning views of the White River landscape. 

Miller excelled at the technically difficult landscape shot, and carried the heavy and cumbersome equipment needed to achieve it across the Arkansas landscape time and again, capturing more than just the daily scene of living, but regional scenes of lifestyle and culture contemporary to him.  We cannot know his intention for many of these images, but what they document is Arkansas at a moment of great change in its history.

Stout white man and dog sitting on bluff overlooking White River (possibly Soldier's Rock), Harry Miller, Old Independence Regional Museum