The RSN Collection comprises objects from all around the world representing 1,000 years of embroidery and textiles.

For centuries, people have stitched in good times and in bad, finding strength in the needle moving in and out of fabric. In this talk, RSN Curator Dr Isabella Rosner discusses the history of embroidery and incarceration as documented in her new, small-scale book, Stitching Freedom published by Common Threads Press.

Stitching Freedom explores the embroidery made in prisons and mental health hospitals – those who have embroidered to distract, to reflect or to calm. From Mary, Queen of Scots to Lorina Bulwer, Isabella unpicks twelve embroidered histories to discover what can be created when freedom is out of reach.