Click on the images below to see them in our online catalog.
Needlework samplers from the colonial and early 19th century period developed and demonstrated the skills a young woman needed to manage a household. The complexity of the piece reflected her level of education and her family’s position in society. Samplers conserved a family’s history. They recorded names, dates, marriages, and births and were later used for census information and for collection of pensions for soldiers, their widows, and descendants.
The JHS collection contains samplers by girls from Jamestown and nearby New England.
Much of the beauty of a sampler came from the color selections of the thread along with patterns that framed the piece and divided the sections. Isabella Watson’s sampler signed “Isabella Watson July 30,1804 Aged 13” has curvilinear border patterns with leaves and flowers along with a central stitched circle around Isabella’s signature. Unfortunately, while the stitches have survived, the thread colors and the textile have both faded to beige, making the message difficult to decipher. Isabella Watson, 1791-1872, daughter of Robert & Catherine Watson, lived at Historic New England’s Watson Farm on North Rd.
Hannah Hazard, who is thought to have lived in South Kingstown, stitched her piece in 1832 at age 13 using silk thread on linen. Linen was the preferred fabric in the 17th and 18th century because its flat hand and even warp and weft were ideal for counted cross stitch and fine detail work. Wool became more popular in the 19th century for heavier needlework like crewel and needlepoint.
Most samplers were laid out in a banded format with alphabet letters first in all caps, then in cursive, then lower case letters, typically at the top of the piece. Next came numbers, sometimes in their own band, and other times, tucked into alphabet lines with extra spaces. Lucy Palmer used 4 different sets of alphabets and signed “Lucy H. Palmer, aged 12 years, Norwich June 16, 1826” thus demonstrating her numbers.
Typically, the lower half of the piece included the seamstress’s full name and date of birth, sometimes in Latin, with a verse, poem and/or Biblical quotation. Martha Fowler, age 9, included multiple alphabet lines with her name and date, August 2, 1804, at the bottom. Her piece includes the verse “Idleness brings want and shame, but peace plenty and love of our friends are the reward of the industrious.”
Samplers illustrated the religious and cultural values of the seamstress. Martha Wood’s sampler includes the Lord’s Prayer and verses from Exodus. She signed her work saying that it was completed in April,1769.
For more details about samplers in the JHS Collection, click here.
