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; one double of 26 letters and one script alphabet of 26 letters. Numbers to 21. All rows separated by simple geometric crossbands.
Description
Three block alphabets; one double of 26 letters and one script alphabet of 26 letters. Numbers to 21. All rows separated by simple geometric crossbands. In lower half of sampler two-story brick house with two chimneys and double door on stepped terrace, flanked by two pairs of flower baskets. Border of single row of cross-stitch on all four sides. Silk embroidery thread on linen ground. STITCHES: cross, rice, Algerian eye, four-sided, crosslet, stem, outline, French knot. THREAD COUNT: warp 27, weft 31/in.
Inscriptions:
"The rof[s]e, The Sweetly Blooming rof[s]e
Ere from the Tree itf[s] torn
Itf[s] Like the charmf[s] which Beauty Show
In Livef[s] exulting Morn.
Auguf[s]ta Ann PhilliPs June
The 18 1794"
Background:
Nothing is known about the life of Augusta Ann Phillips.
Date made
1794
maker
Phillips, Augusta Ann
ID Number
TE.E309069
catalog number
E309069
E 309069
accession number
63668
Five block alphabets of 26 letters, numbers to 14. Each row of alphabets and numbers different color. All these rows separated by narrow geometric crossbands. Border of geometric strawberry vine and single row of herringbone stitch on all four sides.
Description
Five block alphabets of 26 letters, numbers to 14. Each row of alphabets and numbers different color. All these rows separated by narrow geometric crossbands. Border of geometric strawberry vine and single row of herringbone stitch on all four sides. Silk embroidery thread on linen ground. STITCHES: cross, crosslet, long-armed cross, satin, herringbone, eyelet, four-sided, rice, queen, hem. THREAD COUNT: warp 28, weft 28/in.
Inscriptions:
"EDUCATION
Youth like f[s]oftened Wax, with Eaf[s]e will take
Thof[s]e Images that firf[s]t impref[s]sions make.
If thof[s]e are fair, their Actions will be bright,
If foul, they'll clouded be with Shades of Night.
Ann Louisa Ghequiere [f]inished in her 9th year."
Background:
Ann Louisa was born about 1792 to Charles and Harriet Halley Ghequiere in Baltimore, Maryland. She married Dr. Martin Fenwick of West River, Maryland, on August 21, 1815, at St. Peter Pro-Cathedral in Baltimore, Maryland. The marriage was performed by Archbishop John Carroll, with whom her father had been friendly for many years. They had four children—;Harriet, Louisa Claire, Chloe, and Henry. Ann Louisa died on February 22, 1864 in West River.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1799
Associated Name
Ghequiere, Ann Louisa
maker
Chequiere, Ann Louisa
ID Number
TE.T14210
catalog number
T14210
accession number
59228
Two block alphabets, one with 26 letters and one with no "J"; "V" and "U" reversed; numbers to 12. Landscape with gentleman and two ladies; gentleman wears short coat, knee breeches, and wide hat, and carries a walking stick.
Description
Two block alphabets, one with 26 letters and one with no "J"; "V" and "U" reversed; numbers to 12. Landscape with gentleman and two ladies; gentleman wears short coat, knee breeches, and wide hat, and carries a walking stick. One lady wears flowered dress; the other wears striped dress and both wear caps or hats. Hill, tree, and flowering bush on lawn, and small leaping dog. Overhead, clouds and trumpeting angel. Border has wide free-style meandering vine with various flowers. Brown guidelines under center scene and floral border. Just below verse, five rows of staggered cross stitch cover seam where two pieces of ground fabric join. Silk embroidery thread on linen ground. STITCHES: cross, crosslet, petit point, chain, stem, outline, queen. THREAD COUNT: warp 26, weft 32/in.
Inscriptions:
"Let f[s]potlef[s]s innocence and truth
My every action guide
And guard my unexperienced Youth
From vanity and pride
Jemima
Gorham born
august 28 1775
made this sampler
in Bristol 1790
at Mrs. ushers
School"
Background:
Jemima was born on August 29, 1775, to Isaac and Sarah Thomas Gorham in Bristol, Rhode Island. She was the oldest of nine children, and her father died at sea at the age of 48. Jemima married Nicholas Peck as his second wife on October 1, 1797, and died on November 7, 1798, in Bristol, shortly after the birth of their daughter, Jemima Gorham Peck. A year later Nicholas married his wife's sister, Sarah Gorham, on October 5, 1799.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1790
maker
Gorham, Jemima
ID Number
TE.L06956.A
catalog number
L06956A
accession number
113420
This sampler features nine rectangles that are outlined by cross-stitch and satin sawtooth bands. The center and corner rectangles contain flowers and strawberries with some worked in crinkled silk.
Description
This sampler features nine rectangles that are outlined by cross-stitch and satin sawtooth bands. The center and corner rectangles contain flowers and strawberries with some worked in crinkled silk. The flower and strawberry motifs on this sampler indicate nature and a perfect fruit: the strawberry has no rind or pit to throw away. The verses and inscription are in the remaining four rectangles, reading from the top center, to the right center, to the left center, back to the lower part of the right center, and then to the bottom center, resulting in jumps from one rectangle to another where words did not fit the space. The words are worked in green and yellow thread, except for the name “Phebe Hoopes,” which is worked in the only black thread used on the sampler. The inscriptions are:

“Waz[s]h Lord ANd
PUrIFY MY Heart
ANd MaKe It CleaN
IN EVerY Part ANd
WheN It IS CleaN
LOrd KeeP It SO
FOr That IS MOre
ThaN I CaN DO
The LOSS OF TIMe
IS MUCh The LOSS
OF Truth IS MOre
The LOSS OF ChrISt
IS SUCh That NO

MaN CaN ReStOre
POOR State of JaCob
Here It SeeMS TO Me
The CattLe FOUNd
AS SOFt A Bed AS He
Yet GOd APPeared
There HIS JOY ANd
CrOWN GOd IS NOt
ALwaYS FOUNd ON
BedS OF DOWN

The Bed WaS
Earth The RaIsed
PILLar StONe
WhereON POOR
JaCOb ReSt HIS
Head ALONe
HeaVeN WaS HIS
CaNOPY The Shades
OF NIGht WaS
HIS DraWN CUrtaIN
TO EXCLUde The
LIGht ThIS WOrK

IN HaND MY FrIeNdS
MaY HaVe WHeN I aM
IN The SILeNt GraVe

Sarah HOOPes
DauGhter OF Abram
ANd SUSaNNa HooPeS
Her WOrK doN
IN The 14th Year OF
Her AGe 1799
ReeSe HOOPeS
DaNIeL HOOPeS
ALICe HOOPeS
Phebe HOOPeS
AP EJ(?) PH SH”
The four verses that Sarah Hoopes included reflect the emphasis of her time on piety and the brevity of life. Even though Sarah’s sampler came to the Smithsonian in poor condition, it is important to the study of these compartmented verse and flower samplers that were worked only in Philadelphia. The sampler is stitched with silk embroidery thread on a linen ground with a thread count of warp 51, weft 46/in. The stitches used are cross, satin, stem, and outline.
Sarah Hoopes was born on December 25, 1785, to Abraham (1755-1807) and Susanna McNees (1752-1834) Hoopes of Newtown, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Her father was a shoemaker. She lists the names of her two brothers, Reese and Daniel, and her two sisters, Alice and Phebe, on her sampler. There are other initials under Phebe’s name. She died unmarried.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1799
maker
Hoopes, Sarah
ID Number
TE.T11163
catalog number
T11163
accession number
203959

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