Julia Ann Thomas’ silk embroidery depicts the title character of the novel Caroline of Litchfield: or Memoirs of a Prussian Family by Isabelle de Montolieu (1751–1832), first published in America in 1798. The novel’s heroine, repelled by her husband’s physical scars, at first rejects him but later comes to love him for his exemplary character. Young women in England and America embraced this new romantic literature that dealt with complex human emotions, and some, like Julia Ann Thomas, chose Caroline for their needlework. She included the word “Easton” on her embroidery, presumably referring to Easton, Maryland, where a woman named Julia Ann Thomas later taught at the Easton Female Academy. Elements of the design and stitching, however, are characteristic of work from the Moravian schools in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, where Julia may have attended, although no record of her has been found.