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.

Three block alphabets of 26 letters (one incomplete); one script alphabet to "V"; no "J"; numbers to 9. Alphabets and numbers colored in pairs or groups with all rows separated by simple geometric crossbands.
Description
Three block alphabets of 26 letters (one incomplete); one script alphabet to "V"; no "J"; numbers to 9. Alphabets and numbers colored in pairs or groups with all rows separated by simple geometric crossbands. At bottom of sampler, pair of birds on trees and pair of urns with flowers. Border of simple geometric meandering band on all four sides. Silk embroidery thread on dark green linsey-woolsey ground; warp is blue linen and weft is green wool. STITCHES: cross, satin, hem. THREAD COUNT: warp 24, weft 34/in.
Inscription:
"Anzolette Hussey Aged
9 Years Nov 7th 1821"
Background:
Anzolette was born on April 7, 1812, to Captain Andrew (1783–1861) and Mary Tredick Hussey in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She married Ebenezer Knight on June 15, 1835, and they had five daughters—Mary, Ariadne, Hannah E., Sarah K., and Abby. Anzolette died on November 20, 1895, in Washington, D.C., but is buried in Portsmouth. This sampler is very different from her other one and was probably worked at a different school. In 1827, at the age of fourteen, she was a student in the First Female School of Portsmouth. Throughout her life she used two different spellings for her first name. See Annzalette Hussey for her other sampler.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1821
maker
Hussey, Anzolette
ID Number
TE.H33960
catalog number
H33960
H. (/) 33960
accession number
63786
Two block alphabets of 26 letters. One script alphabet with no "J," and "O" instead of "Z"; numbers to 19. Alphabets and numbers colored in pairs or groups with all these rows separated by simple geometric crossbands.
Description
Two block alphabets of 26 letters. One script alphabet with no "J," and "O" instead of "Z"; numbers to 19. Alphabets and numbers colored in pairs or groups with all these rows separated by simple geometric crossbands. In lower half of sampler, flower basket on rectangular base, flanked by two eight-sided lozenges decorated with swags and tassels containing inscription and date. Border of geometric flowering vine on all four sides. Silk embroidery thread on linen ground. STITCHES: cross, crosslet, outline, stem, chain, satin. THREAD COUNT: warp 22, weft 25/in.
Inscriptions:
"Annzalette
Hussey
aged 9
In the year of
our Lord
1821"
Background:
Anzolette was born on April 7, 1812, to Captain Andrew (1783–1861) and Mary Tredick Hussey in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She married Ebenezer Knight on June 15, 1835, and they had five daughters—Mary, Ariadne, Hannah E., Sarah K., and Abby. Anzolette died on November 20, 1895, in Washington, D.C., but is buried in Portsmouth. In 1827, at the age of fourteen, she was a student in the First Female School of Portsmouth. On this sampler she spelled her name Annzalette, and throughout her life she used the two different spellings for her first name. This sampler is very different from her other one and was probably worked at a different school. See Anzolette Hussey for her other sampler.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1821
maker
Hussey, Anzolette
ID Number
TE.H33961
catalog number
H33961
accession number
63786

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