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.

Large cornucopia of flowers and leaves above verse, with geometric carnation border. Flowers include morning glory, moss rose, sweet peas, and lily. Brown guidelines under cornucopia and flowers. Maker's age and date written in ink, probably added later.
Description
Large cornucopia of flowers and leaves above verse, with geometric carnation border. Flowers include morning glory, moss rose, sweet peas, and lily. Brown guidelines under cornucopia and flowers. Maker's age and date written in ink, probably added later. Silk embroidery thread on linen ground. STITCHES: Cross, crosslet, herringbone. THREAD COUNT: warp 30, weft 28/in.
Inscription:
"The star of Bethlehem
Brighter than the rising day
When the sun of glory shines;
Brighter than the diamond's ray
Sparkling in Golonda's [sic] mines
Beaming through the clouds of wo
Smiles in Mercy's diadem
On the guilty world below
The Star that rose in Bethlehem
Elizabeth Orme
Novr 9th"
written in ink after the inscription is "1833 Age 9"
Background:
Elizabeth was born about 1825 to Sarah and Thomas Orme in Washington, D.C. She married James Hizer on September 6, 1854, but by the 1860 census, she was widowed and living with her mother and sister Anna, who was also a widow. Elizabeth died in 1892 of tuberculosis. See her mother's (Sarah Kurtz) sampler. Anna's daughter Mary donated her grandmother's and aunt's samplers.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1833
associated dates
1933 06 22
maker
Orme, Elizabeth
ID Number
TE.T07319
accession number
124663
catalog number
T07319
One script and four block alphabets. Numbers to 10 and to 16. Two large and one small alphabet colored in groups of two; fourth alphabet colored in groups of four; numbers and smallest alphabet one color.
Description
One script and four block alphabets. Numbers to 10 and to 16. Two large and one small alphabet colored in groups of two; fourth alphabet colored in groups of four; numbers and smallest alphabet one color. Rows of alphabets and numbers separated by geometric crossbands; some geometric motifs used to fill spaces on rows of alphabets. Lower third of sampler contains two urns of free-stitched flowers surrounding large basket of fruit with side leaves. Geometric design border on all four sides. Silk embroidery thread on linen ground. STITCHES: cross, crosslet, satin, Algerian eye, rice, double herringbone, stem, four-sided. THREAD COUNT: warp 29, weft 29/in.
Inscription:
"[Margaret] C. Simmons Work Washington City Oct th 2 d
1827"
Background:
Margaret was born about 1819 to James and Mary Simmons. James is listed as a cooper, a barrel-maker, living at the Navy Yard in the 1822 Washington, D.C. directory. The court records of the District of Columbia record the marriage of Margaret C. Simmons to Patrick Dowling on May 9, 1839. In 1847 they had a son named Julius, who married Rosa M. Kuhn on January 10, 1877. Julius enlisted to serve in the Civil War in 1864 under the alias name of John Dickson. Miss Simmons's first name is missing from her sampler, but she made another sampler, typical of Navy Yard samplers, that included her whole name. Finding that sampler in a private collection made it possible to identify this sampler. Margaret died sometime after the birth of Julius in 1847, and before October 2, 1852, when her husband Patrick remarried.
Date made
1827
maker
Simmons, Margaret C.
ID Number
2000.0143.01
catalog number
2000.0143.01
accession number
2000.0143
Worked in pink, green, blue, beige, cream, tan, brown, gold, and black thread. Decorated with central flowering cornucopia above bird and inscription, all enclosed within strawberry queen-stitch border. Silk embroidery on plain-weave linen ground.
Description
Worked in pink, green, blue, beige, cream, tan, brown, gold, and black thread. Decorated with central flowering cornucopia above bird and inscription, all enclosed within strawberry queen-stitch border. Silk embroidery on plain-weave linen ground. STITCHES: cross, crosslet, queen, straight. THREAD COUNT: warp 30, weft 28/in.
Inscription:
"Mary M. Meem
finished this work in her fifteenth year
of her age
George Town D.C
A.D 1836"
Background:
Mary Margaret was born on October 17, 1821, to George A. and Rebecca Ann Mudd Meem in Georgetown, D.C. She married Seth Nichols as his second wife on April 8, 1842, and they had seven children—Clayton, Charles, Catherine, Caroline, Tillman, Ann, and Seth. He was a tailor, and they lived in Frederick, Maryland. Sometime after Seth's death on June 14, 1871, she moved back to Georgetown, D.C., and died there on October 27, 1889. She is buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Frederick.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1836
maker
Meem, Mary M.
ID Number
2004.0246.01
accession number
2004.0246
catalog number
2004.0246.01
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

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