Mary Zeller

Mary Coeleman Zeller (December 14, 1745 – December 30, 1818) was a colonial American needlework teacher who operated a school in Philadelphia from 1789 to 1808.

Mary Zeller was born on December 14, 1745 in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Jacob and Catharine Coeleman. In 1768, she married Johann George Zeller and they would have five children. She was a widow by 1790. She died on December 30, 1818.

Samplers from Zeller's school are the earliest known of a larger group of samplers featuring a stepped-terrace motif and created from the 1790s to 1830. Zeller's samplers usually feature a castle or Georgian mansion. Some feature animals like cows, goats, and stags. Most feature an Angus Dei (Lamb of God) motif that is traced back to the pattern book Newes Modelbuch In Kupffer Germacht (1604) by Johann Sibmacher. Margaret Lasky (1795), and Rachel Boughten (1807).