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.

Block upper-case alphabet; letters colored alternately; no "J" or "U." Numbers 1 to 0. These rows, together with rows containing verse, all separated by narrow crossbands, including sawtooth and dentil patterns.
Description
Block upper-case alphabet; letters colored alternately; no "J" or "U." Numbers 1 to 0. These rows, together with rows containing verse, all separated by narrow crossbands, including sawtooth and dentil patterns. Below verse, three wide crossbands: one of flowering plants, birds, and sheep or goats, and two wide geometric bands in patterns that appear often on eastern Massachusetts samplers, especially in Boston area. At bottom of sampler spies, from Canaan, wearing knee-breeches and flared coats, identified by letters "Ja" and "Ca" and flanked by trees, flowering plants, and small birds. Below them, 1 5/8" strip with geometric strawberry vine solidly worked in cross-stitch. Border of geometric flowering vine on top and two sides. Silk embroidery thread on linen ground. STITCHES: cross, satin, Algerian eye. THREAD COUNT: warp 38, weft 42/in.
Inscriptions:
"When Stern Affliction Waves her Rod
My heart Confids in the my God
When Nature Shrinks Oppresd with woes
E en then in thee She finds Repose
Affliction flyes and hope returns
Her Lamp with brighter Splendor burns
Gay Love with all his Chearful Train
And Joy And peace are here again
Molley Ruff[ss]ell
Ad 12 1776"
Background:
Mary (Molly) was born on June 19, 1765, to Peter and Molly Russell of Bradford, Massachusetts. Her father was a distinguished shipbuilder. She married Ephraim Emery on September 17, 1785. He enlisted as a fifer on April 19, 1775, at the Lexington alarm, and entered the service in William Rogers's Company on April 27, 1775. Ephraim was in the assault on Stony Point and the battle of White Plains. After the war, in 1799, he was appointed captain in the United States Army, 14th Regiment, which was disbanded in 1800. He served successively as captain, brigade major, and inspector in the state militia. The couple had four children—Mary, John, Thomas, and Hannah.
Mary died on March 3, 1843, in Newbury, Massachusetts.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1776
associated dates
1963-11-28
maker
Russell, Molley
ID Number
TE.T20239A
accession number
246268
catalog number
T20239.A
Two block alphabets, no "J," with "V" and "U" reversed. Numbers to 10. Alphabets and numbers colored in groups. These rows separated by simple geometric crossbands. Crown and several simple geometric motifs fill out alphabet lines.
Description
Two block alphabets, no "J," with "V" and "U" reversed. Numbers to 10. Alphabets and numbers colored in groups. These rows separated by simple geometric crossbands. Crown and several simple geometric motifs fill out alphabet lines. At base of sampler, rose, tulip, strawberry plants, and tree climbing one edge. Brown guidelines under tree and flowers. Border of single row of marking cross on all four sides. Silk embroidery thread on linen ground. STITCHES: two-sided cross, marking cross, satin, Algerian eye, stem, outline, queen, straight, tent, crosslet, herringbone, chain, hem. THREAD COUNT: warp 26, weft 31/in.
Inscription:
"Sarah Prince Fenn Aged
12 Year 7 months
1775"
Background:
Sarah was born on February 21, 1763, to Benjamin and Mary Peck Fenn in Milford, Connecticut. She married Theophilus Miles, and they had three children—Mary, Samuel, and Sarah Fenn. Mrs. Miles died in Milford on May 15, 1790, about five months after the birth of their daughter Sarah Fenn Miles. Theophilus married Martha Clark on September 15, 1791.
Date made
1775
maker
Fenn, Sarah Prince
ID Number
TE.T16945
catalog number
T16945
accession number
311079
Two long narrow strips of cloth joined with all four edges turned and whipped. One block alphabet with two of some letters; no "J." One crown. Same simple outline often used as spacer in alphabets. No border. Initials "SB." Linen thread on linen ground. STITCHES: cross.
Description
Two long narrow strips of cloth joined with all four edges turned and whipped. One block alphabet with two of some letters; no "J." One crown. Same simple outline often used as spacer in alphabets. No border. Initials "SB." Linen thread on linen ground. STITCHES: cross. THREAD COUNT: longer strip warp 38, weft 48/in.
; shorter strip warp 36, weft 40/in.
Background:
Sylvia was born on September 28, 1770, to Zophar and Eunice Ives Blakeslee in New Haven, Connecticut. She married Andrews Hall on December 3, 1800, and they had four children—William, Sylvia, Abigail, and Mary. She died on July 19, 1851, in Wallingford, Connecticut. Sylvia's simple sampler was treasured and passed down in her family. Her daughter Sylvia Hall made a more traditional sampler. See Sylvia Hall's sampler.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1750-1775
maker
Blakeslee, Sylvia
ID Number
TE.T16941
catalog number
T16941
accession number
310734
Three block alphabets. One script alphabet; no "J"; "V" and "U" reversed. Numbers to 9; all rows of alphabets, inscription, and verse separated by simple geometric crossbands. Two wider crossbands of birds, trees, plants, strawberries, flowers.
Description
Three block alphabets. One script alphabet; no "J"; "V" and "U" reversed. Numbers to 9; all rows of alphabets, inscription, and verse separated by simple geometric crossbands. Two wider crossbands of birds, trees, plants, strawberries, flowers. Above alphabets, angular arcade with three angels (?). Lower third of sampler contains landscape with hillocks and strawberries, running stag and two dogs, shepherdess and sheep, three flowering trees, parrot and hummingbird. Border of free-style flowering vine across top and down both sides, with single row of marking cross along each side of border. Brown guidelines under free embroidery in landscape and border. Silk embroidery thread on linen ground. STITCHES: cross, marking cross, satin, French knot, tent, long-armed cross, outline, stem, chain, Roumanian, bullion. THREAD COUNT: warp 35, weft 38/in.
Inscription:
"ESTHer Tincom IS MY Name and England IS MY Nation
Boston IS MY dwelling Place and Christ IS MY Salvation
When I am dead and in my grave and all my bones are rotten
When This You f[s]ee remember Me That I Mant be for 12
[gotten Do]ne in the 10 Year of MY age 3456789"
Background:
Information from the donor included the following: "brought from Boston, around the Horn in 1850 and William Patch saved the sampler from the San Francisco fire."
Date made
1764-1774
maker
Tincom, Esther
ID Number
TE.T11099
catalog number
T11099
accession number
200253

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