American Samplers

The earliest known American sampler was made by Loara Standish of the Plymouth Colony about 1645. By the 1700s, samplers depicting alphabets and numerals were worked by young women to learn the basic needlework skills needed to operate the family household. By the late 1700s and early 1800s, schools or academies for well-to-do young women flourished, and more elaborate pieces with decorative motifs such as verses, flowers, houses, religious, pastoral, and/or mourning scenes were being stitched. The parents of these young women proudly displayed their embroideries as showpieces of their work, talent, and status.

In recent years, samplers have become important in museum collections as representations of early American female education. Many are signed, and some are inscribed with locations and the names of teachers and schools. The emergence of large numbers of these samplers has resulted in much research in diaries, account books, letters, newspaper ads, local histories, and published commentary that is helping to illuminate the lives of women in early America.

Many early samplers do not have the letters “J” and “U” in their alphabets because they were not part of the early Latin alphabet and so the letter “I” was used for “J” and the “V” for “U.” The letter “s” is often replaced with the printers “s” which looks like the modern f.

There are 137 American samplers in the Textile Collection. The first was donated in 1886, the Margaret Dinsmoor sampler. In the 1890s the Copp Collection was received and it contained two samplers—one by Esther Copp and the other by her great niece Phebe Esther Copp. (The Copp Collection is an extensive collection of 18th-and 19th- century household textiles, costume items, furniture, and other pieces belonging to the Copps, a prosperous but frugal Connecticut family.) The earliest dated sampler in the collection was made in 1735 by Lydia Dickman of Boston, Massachusetts.

Script upper-case alphabet, & at end; second line completed with geometric vine; block upper-case alphabet; lower-case alphabet, & at end. Fourth row completed with geometric vine. Fifth row, numbers to 14, completed on each side with geometric vine.
Description
Script upper-case alphabet, & at end; second line completed with geometric vine; block upper-case alphabet; lower-case alphabet, & at end. Fourth row completed with geometric vine. Fifth row, numbers to 14, completed on each side with geometric vine. Alphabets and numbers separated by simple crossbands; simple crossbands separate above from Family Record and inscription. Geometric vine separates inscription and verse. Floral motif on each side of verse. All above enclosed in simple geometric border. Outer border of flowering vine that emanates from Grecian-style urn at bottom center and bows at top center, at lower left, and at lower right. Inked pattern for outer border visible. Silk embroidery thread on linen ground. STITCHES: satin, encroaching satin, queen, chain, outline, cross. THREAD COUNT: warp 32, weft 28/in.
Inscriptions:
"Family Record
Daniel Dutch born f[s]eptember 3 1765 Sarah Dodge born June 12 1766
were married september 17 1786 Nathaniel Dodge Dutch born
september 10 1787 Daniel Dutch born march 7 1790 died may 12 1791
Sarah Dutch born march 20 1792 Daniel Dutch born december 28
1794 Priscilla Dutch born september 9 1797 Mary Dutch born
november 12 1800 Isaac Dodge Dutch born december 21 1803
Mrs Sarah Dutch died February 7 1808 in the 42 year of her age
Priscilla Dutch wrought this sampler in the 11th year of her age 1808
As this fair sampler shall continue still
The guide and model of my future skill
May Christ the great exemplar of mankind
Direct my ways and regulate my mind"
Background:
Priscilla was born on September 9, 1797, to Daniel and Sarah Dodge Dutch, near Ipswich, Massachusetts. She married Ebenezer Putnam, a widower, on May 7, 1844. They did not have any children, but Priscilla was a mother to the thirteen children of Ebenezer and his first wife, Betsey Webb Putnam. Priscilla died on April 18, 1856, in Massachusetts.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1808
maker
Dutch, Priscilla
ID Number
1999.0083.01
catalog number
1999.0083.01
accession number
1999.0083
Three block alphabets; one script alphabet. Two alphabets have letters colored alternately with no "J"; numbers to 4, to 15, and to 21; all these rows separated by geometric crossbands.
Description
Three block alphabets; one script alphabet. Two alphabets have letters colored alternately with no "J"; numbers to 4, to 15, and to 21; all these rows separated by geometric crossbands. Surrounding verse and inscription paired motifs of trees, crowns, flower-baskets, birds, and bird in wreath; two checkered flower-baskets with handles but no flowers. Border of geometric strawberry vine on all four sides. Silk embroidery thread on linen ground. STITCHES: cross, crosslet, stem, chain, eyelet, Algerian eye. THREAD COUNT: warp 28, weft 32/in.
Inscription:
"When wealth to virtuous hands is giv[e]n
It blef[s]ses like the dews of heavn
Like heaven it hears the orphans cries
And wipes the tears from widows eyes
Sarah Kurtz." (written in ink after the inscription is: "Worked 1804 age 9")
Background:
Sarah was born January 20, 1795, to Christian (1751 - 1808) and Maria Gardner (1756 -1822) in Georgetown, DC. She and Thomas Orme were married by Rev. Balch in Georgetown, D.C., on June 2, 1816. They had three daughters—Rebecca, Elizabeth, and Anna. Sarah died on December 23, 1864, in Washington and is buried there in Oak Hill Cemetery. Anna's daughter Mary donated her grandmother's and aunt's samplers. See Elizabeth Orme's sampler.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1804
maker
Kurtz, Sarah
ID Number
TE.T07318
catalog number
T07318
accession number
124663
Verse and two wide floral crossbands, both arcaded, one with roses and one with strawberries and forget-me-nots. Two eight-pointed stars. Black guidelines under flowers in rose crossband. Center section framed in band of sawtooth.
Description
Verse and two wide floral crossbands, both arcaded, one with roses and one with strawberries and forget-me-nots. Two eight-pointed stars. Black guidelines under flowers in rose crossband. Center section framed in band of sawtooth. Border of geometric flowering vine with strawberries and pinks, and an outer row of dentil pattern on all four sides. Silk embroidery thread on linen ground. STITCHES: cross, straight, Algerian eye, satin, surface satin, encroaching satin, stem, queen, outline. THREAD COUNT: warp 40, weft 38/in.
Inscriptions:
"Here In This Garden Here Below
Water Me That I May Grow
And When All Grace To Me Is Given
Then Transplant Me Into Heaven
Elizabeth Marx Her Work 1802"
Background:
This is probably the Elizabeth born on March 20, 1790, to George and Elizabeth Marx in Reading, Pennsylvania. According to the records from the Trinity Lutheran Church in Reading, she married Christian Brobst on September 6, 1812. She died June 20, 1847 and is buried at the Union/West End Cemetery in Allentown, Lehigh, PA.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1802
maker
Marx, Elizabeth
ID Number
TE.T11651
catalog number
T11651.000
accession number
222389
One script alphabet with letters colored in pairs; no "J"; three rows separated by simple crossbands. Below verse, three flowering plants (one in vase) and two-story building with four chimneys standing next to tree on hill.
Description
One script alphabet with letters colored in pairs; no "J"; three rows separated by simple crossbands. Below verse, three flowering plants (one in vase) and two-story building with four chimneys standing next to tree on hill. Center section outlined by three sawtoothed bands and short strawberry-vine band. Border of wide geometric flowering vine on top and two sides, and band of shaded satin stitches across bottom. Silk embroidery thread on linen ground. STITCHES: cross, crosslet, chain, detached chain, petit point, outline, satin, hem. THREAD COUNT: warp 32, weft 28/in.
Inscriptions:
"The fairest flower will soon decay
Its fragrant loose and splended hue
So youth and beauty wear away
And vanish is the morning dew
Sukey Fosters Work
Wrought in the tWelfth
Year of her age
Cambridge
August 20 1803"
Background:
Sukey was born on March 10, 1791, to James and Sukey Foster in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. She married William Adams on September 17, 1818, and they had four children—Susan Ann, William, Hannah Foster, and Mary Jane. Sukey died in West Cambridge, Massachusetts, on September 13, 1846. Her sampler descended in the family of her son William.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1803
maker
Foster, Sukey
ID Number
1980.0849.01
accession number
1980.0849
catalog number
1980.0849.01
This sampler features a two story house with windows and two chimneys on a stepped hill with grazing sheep. The stepped hill can be found on samplers from Philadelphia, western Maryland and New Jersey.
Description
This sampler features a two story house with windows and two chimneys on a stepped hill with grazing sheep. The stepped hill can be found on samplers from Philadelphia, western Maryland and New Jersey. There is a center angel and two apple baskets are on either side above the inscription. The motif of an angel means a messenger of God and the apple baskets often represent fertility and wealth. There is a three-sided geometric border, with queen stitch strawberries and leaves. (a more difficult stitch) The sampler is stitched with silk embroidery thread on a linen ground with a thread count of warp 28, weft 28/in. The stitches used are cross, queen, satin, and straight.
Elizabeth Throckmorton was born on October 18, 1795, in Monmouth County, New Jersey to Holmes (c.1759 –1821) and Susannah Forman (1762-1820) Throckmorton. Her father served in the American Revolution for three years. She married John Britton on November 18, 1813, and they had three children - John, Mary, and Catharine. Her husband John died c.1822-1823. She married Tobias Worrel on October 26, 1824, and they had a daughter Jane. According to the 1840 census they were then living in Des Moines, Iowa.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1804-1806
maker
Throckmorton, Elizabeth
ID Number
1990.0477.01
catalog number
1990.0477.01
accession number
1990.0477
This sampler features an alphabet, numbers, flowers, baskets, birds, and trees all worked in cross stitch, while the background is completely filled in with long vertical stitches.
Description
This sampler features an alphabet, numbers, flowers, baskets, birds, and trees all worked in cross stitch, while the background is completely filled in with long vertical stitches. The flower baskets symbolize friendship and love, and the birds on the trees would indicate her love of nature. The figure within the cartouche is balanced by a four-storied building, which may depict the school or academy that inspired the design. The sampler is stitched with silk embroidery thread on a linen ground with a thread count of 26/in warp, 24/in weft. The stitches used are cross, satin, chain, French knots, and straight. Rachel included the inscription:

Alas how transient all our earthly store
To-day we bloom tomorrow are no more
Rachel Breck / aged 11
Rachel Breck also stitched a silk embroidery in 1810 entitled “Charity” at the Misses Patten School in Hartford, Connecticut.
Rachel Breck was born July 22, 1792, to Joseph Hunt (1766-1801), a silversmith, and Abigail Kingsley (c1766-1846) Breck of Northampton, Massachusetts. In 1819 Rachel married George Hooker who was born 1798 to John and Sarah (Dwight) Hooker of Northampton. He went to Yale, class of 1814 and was a physician who resided in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. They had 8 children born between 1820 and 1833 and Rachel died in January 6,1879.
date made
1803
maker
Breck, Rachel
ID Number
2011.0256.01
catalog number
2011.0256.01
accession number
2011.0256
The lettering on Elizabeth’s sampler is in black silk, and the whole sampler is framed by vines with leaves and flowers worked in various pulled thread patterns.
Description
The lettering on Elizabeth’s sampler is in black silk, and the whole sampler is framed by vines with leaves and flowers worked in various pulled thread patterns. She included the inscription:

"Elizabeth Pitman in
her 12th year 1802
And am I born to die, to lay this body down
And muf[s]t my trembling f[s]pirit fly into a world
unknown"
(Most of the verse had disappeared; however it is a standard verse on samplers of the period, Hymns for Children (1763) by Charles Wesley.) Charles Wesley wrote over two thousand hymns during his lifetime, and Elizabeth Pitman chose one that was often used on samplers on the imminence of death. The sampler is stitched with silk embroidery thread on a linen ground with a thread count of warp 44, weft 44/in. The stitches used are cross, rice, Algerian eye, eyelet, outline, stem, and pulled thread. Elizabeth’s sampler came to the Smithsonian in very poor condition, but is important for research because of the pulled thread work on it and because it is a rare Southern sampler.
Elizabeth Pitman was born on November 30, 1790, to Andrew and Francis Frankey Pitman in Harrisonburg, Virginia. She married Isaac Mytinger on July 16, 1807, and sometime after his death on May 26, 1814, she married Anthony Huffman (1784-1861). They had seven children - David (1815-), Frances C. (1816-), John Morgan (1821-), Caroline Matilda (1825-), Edward (1828-), Ann Elizabeth (1830-), and Asburina Cornelia (1833-). She died on September 3, 1870.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1802
maker
Pitman, Elizabeth
ID Number
TE.T12180
catalog number
T12180
accession number
233455
This sampler features two block alphabets, and below the alphabets are flower-baskets, trees, birds, and dogs. The flower baskets on this sampler may stand for friendship and love, while the birds are spirits of the air, and dogs denote fidelity and watchfulness.
Description
This sampler features two block alphabets, and below the alphabets are flower-baskets, trees, birds, and dogs. The flower baskets on this sampler may stand for friendship and love, while the birds are spirits of the air, and dogs denote fidelity and watchfulness. It is hemstitched on all four sides. Hannah included the inscription:

“Hannah Hall / AE 12 1803”
The sampler is stitched with silk embroidery thread on a linen ground with a thread count of warp 25, weft 22/ in. The stitches used are cross, crosslet, satin, and reverse tent.
Nothing is known about the life of Hannah Hall.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1803
maker
Hall, Hannah
ID Number
TE.T12186
catalog number
T12186
accession number
233422

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