Textiles - Overview
The 50,000 objects in the textile collections fall into two main categories: raw fibers, yarns, and fabrics, and machines, tools, and other textile technology. Shawls, coverlets, samplers, laces, linens, synthetics, and other fabrics are part of the first group, along with the 400 quilts in the National Quilt Collection. Some of the Museum's most popular artifacts, such as the Star-Spangled Banner and the gowns of the first ladies, have an obvious textile connection.
The machinery and tools include spinning wheels, sewing machines, thimbles, needlework tools, looms, and an invention that changed the course of American agriculture and society. A model of Eli Whitney's cotton gin, made by the inventor in the early 1800s, shows the workings of a machine that helped make cotton plantations profitable in the South and encouraged the spread of slavery.
"Textiles - Overview" showing 684 items.
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Mary P. Stabler's Sampler
- Description
- This sampler features six block alphabets: five of 26 letters and one double. All the rows are separated by simple geometric crossbands. Mary Stabler’s sampler is an example of a marking sampler that consisted predominately of alphabets and numbers, and was usually the first sampler a young lady stitched. Alphabets were used to mark linens for identification. Mary included the inscription:
“Mary P Stabler’s
Work
Aged 11 Alexandria”
- The sampler is stitched with silk and cotton embroidery thread on a linen ground with a thread count of warp 28, weft 29/in. The stitches used are: cross, crosslet, four-sided, double cross, rice, Algerian eye, queen, and herringbone.
- Mary Pleasants Stabler was born on January 30, 1809, to Edward and Mary Hartshorne Stabler in Alexandria, Virginia. In 1835 she married John Leadbeater and they had eight children - Edward S., Lucy, Mary G., Alice, Anna, Alice, William, and Thomas. Mary died on August 9, 1863. See her daughter Anna Leadbeater’s samplers.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1819-1821
- maker
- Stabler, Mary P.
- ID Number
- TE*T12610
- catalog number
- T12610
- accession number
- 235642
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Jane Winter Price's Sampler
- Description
- This sampler features a footed bowl on a square base, holding a large bouquet of flowers. One flower has been shaded with dark red and orange-red paint over the stitches. Jane included the inscription:
“These violets scent the distant gale;
They grew in lowly bed,
So real worth new merit gains,
By diffidence o’erspread:
Jane Winter Price
But as the fragrant myrtle wreath,
Will all the rest survive:
So shall the mental graces still,
Through endless ages live.”
- To accompany her large bouquet of flowers, Jane Price used stanzas 2 and 9 from a verse accompanying a nosegay found in an English reader published in 1816. A small bouquet of flowers often given as a gift was known as a nosegay. The sampler is stitched with silk embroidery thread on a linen ground with a thread count of warp 25, weft 28/ in. The stitches used are chain, stem, surface satin, cross, outline, herringbone, crosslet, and French knot.
- Jane Winter was born on March 17, 1818, to Richard and Catherine Winter Dunnington Price in Charles County, Maryland. She married Josiah Woods McHenry (b. May 14, 1815 in Christianburg, Virginia) on February 27, 1849, in Shelby, Alabama. They moved to Union Springs, Arkansas and had four children - Catherine Price (1850-), Barnabas Middleton (1852-), George Richard (1854-), and Jane Cornelia (1856-). By the 1870 census they were living in Homer, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, and she died there on January 11, 1899.
- date made
- 1828-1835
- maker
- Price, Jane Winter
- ID Number
- TE*T12732
- catalog number
- T12732
- accession number
- 241104
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Diana Austin's Sampler
- Description
- This sampler features two script alphabets to “X,” and there are also two block alphabets: one with 26 letters and one to “W” with “NOPQ” not worked but a space left for them. At the bottom of the sampler, is a two-story house (in perspective) with a tall pointed tree and a spreading tree behind an ornamental fence, which has reverse-curved sections between fence-posts topped by urns. The house on Diana Austin’s sampler could be her home or the home of her teacher. She showed advanced technique by using surface stitches for her trees and not cross stitch. Diana included the inscription:
“Diana Austins Sampler
Marked AD 1827 Aged 8
PENFIELD NY”
- The sampler is stitched with silk embroidery thread on a linen ground with a thread count of warp 39, weft 46/ in. The stitches used are cross, detached chain, four-sided, Algerian eye, buttonhole, outline, and satin.
- Jotham Austin married Hannah Case as his second wife on August 25, 1817, in Franklin, Vermont. At some point they moved to Penfield, New York, where Jotham died in March 1830 and Hannah died on May 11, 1830. They had two children - Diana (b. May 9, 1819) and Sabrina P. (b. March 13, 1824). Libbeus Ross, who was married to Hannah’s step-daughter Honoria Austin, was appointed guardian of the family according to Hannah’s will, dated March 15, 1830.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1827
- maker
- Austin, Diana
- ID Number
- TE*T14276
- catalog number
- T14276
- accession number
- 276184
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Mary Harrison's Sampler
- Description
- In upper half of sampler, flanking verses, flowering plant with birds flying overhead, and lady and gentleman under tree. Man wears short flared coat and carries cane; lady wears elaborate hat, long-sleeved dress, and pantalettes, and carries small bag with long ribbon straps and what appears to be furled parasol. In lower half, large flat-roofed building with tall windows and columns. On flat roof recessed second story also flat-roofed but with large semicircular window. Building stands on lawn (or hill) flanked by trees, urns of flowers, and spotted dog. Border of geometric strawberry vine on all four sides. Silk embroidery thread on linen ground. STITCHES: cross, crosslet, queen, satin, double cross, four-sided, chain, stem. THREAD COUNT: warp 29, weft 31/in.
- Inscriptions:
- "What iS the blooming fair
And tincture of the Skin
to Peace of mind from care
And harmony within
Sickness and age will blaSt
All outward charmeS away
Virtue will Sooth at last
in deathS tremendiouS day
- See the Kind Shepherd JeSuS StandS
with all engaging charmeS
Hark how he calls his tender lambs
And folds them in his arms
- Mary Harrison Aged Eleven Years
Alexandria July 1830"
- Background:
- This may have been stitched by the Mary Harrison who was born about 1820, daughter of Reverend Elias Harrison. She married Joseph M. Newton as her second husband in 1858. Or it may have been stitched by the Mary Harrison who was born in 1818, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Carlin Harrison of Alexandria, Virginia, and who married Isaac Kell in 1841.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1830
- maker
- Harrison, Mary
- ID Number
- TE*T14710
- catalog number
- T14710
- accession number
- 280469
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Lucretia M. Hand's Sampler
- Description
- Lucretia added to her basic marking sampler a decoration of flowering plants, which stand for nature. It is hemstitched on all sides with dark thread. Lucretia included the inscription: “Lucretia M Hand.” The sampler is stitched with silk embroidery thread on a linen ground with a thread count of warp 32, weft 39/in. The stitches used are: cross, Algerian eye, back, queen, and hem.
- Lucretia M. Hand was born on October 7, 1799, in Sag Harbor (Long Island), New York to Jared (1762-) and Beulah Hedges (1769 –1828) Hand. On July 30, 1823, she married, Dr. George Washington Harris of Greenport, Long Island. She died on Long Island in 1863.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1810
- maker
- Hand, Lucretia M.
- ID Number
- TE*T14845
- catalog number
- T14845
- accession number
- 282859
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Mary Bishop's Sampler
- Description
- There is a wide floral crossband at the center of the sampler, worked with crinkled silk thread in long, couched stitches. At the bottom of the sampler are three large and two small floral motifs, and among them these initials: “WB SB CB JB.” All four edges are finished with wide green silk ribbon. Mary Bishop included an inscription and the names Joseph Bishop, Mary Bishop, and Sarah Bishop.
- Mary’s inscription is from a poem entitled “Song of a Spirit” by Ann Ward Radcliffe (1764-1823). Mrs. Radcliffe was a popular English writer in her day and this poem is from her 1791 historical Gothic romance novel The Romance of the Forest. The sampler is stitched with silk embroidery thread on a linen ground with a thread count of warp 28, weft 30/in. The stitches used are cross, satin, eyelet, rice, stem, outline, and crosslet.
- Despite including the names of possibly her mother and father, nothing could be found about the life of Mary Bishop.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1800-1825
- maker
- Bishop, Mary
- ID Number
- TE*T15008
- catalog number
- T15008
- accession number
- 286272
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Margaret Arndt's Sampler
- Description
- At bottom of the sampler is an unfinished two-story house with two baskets and an urn of flowers, on a ground of straight stitches shaded like Florentine patterns. Margaret Arndt stitched a common proverb that reflected the importance at that time of one’s salvation in Christ. The inscription reads:
“The LOSE of a FaThEr IS MUSh
BUT The LOZE OF a MOTher IS MOOR
BUT the LOSE OF ChrIST IS SUCh
AS NONe CAN RE STOre
DONe IN MY AELEVe
Nth YeAr OF my
Age the YeAr OF
OUR LOrd ONe ThOUSaNd 1815
Margaret Arndt”
- The sampler is stitched with silk and cotton embroidery thread on a linen ground with a thread count of warp 27, weft 29/in. The stitches used are cross, chain, Algerian eye, satin, stem, outline, buttonhole, straight, crosslet, slanted gobelin, and hem.
- Margaret Arndt, born ca. 1804 in Pennsylvania, married on June 11, 1833, as the second wife of Henry DeHuff (1794 - 1854). They had six children - Catherine (c.1834-), Jacob A. (c.1836-), Abraham (c.1838-), Anna (1840-), Susannah (c.1845-), and John (c.1848-).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1815
- maker
- Arndt, Margaret
- ID Number
- TE*T16418
- catalog number
- T16418
- accession number
- 304266
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Laura Stone's Sampler
- Description
- In the center section, a two and one half story house is flanked by birds on trees and flower baskets. The house on Laura Stone’s sampler may have some important meaning to her. To achieve the look of bricks, she stitched two cross stitches over two threads by two threads and then left a single thread blank. She also left a single thread blank between each row of stitches. The flower baskets symbolize friendship and love, and the birds on the trees would indicate her love of nature. The sampler is stitched with silk embroidery thread on a linen ground with a thread count of warp 46, weft 40/in. The stitches used are cross, satin, chain, detached chain, Algerian eye, stem, and eyelet. This sampler has been attributed by descendants to Laura Stone.
- Laura Stone was born June 22, 1806, to Amaziah and Fanny Hall Stone in Chesterfield, New Hampshire. She married John P. Henry (1806 –1847) in 1834. They had six children - Maria Abigail (1836-), John Harfield (1838-), Elizabeth Laura (1840-), Charles E. (1842-), James S. (1844-), and George L. (1846-). She married David Holman in 1850, and she died on March 21, 1863. Harlan Fiske Stone (Chief Justice of the United States 1941-1946) was the grandson of her twin brother Lauson Stone.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1830
- maker
- Stone, Laura
- ID Number
- TE*T17766
- catalog number
- T17766
- accession number
- 315495
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Sewing Machine Patent Model
- Description
- William T. Smith, of West Zanesville, Ohio, received Patent 99,743 in 1870 for an improvement on a sewing machine for stitching parallel seams. In the 19th century this miniature model was exhibited in the Patent Office's Museum of Models. The model maker beautifully decorated this model far beyond the Patent Office requirements.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- TE*T6355
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 99743
- catalog number
- T6355
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Betsy Bruce's Sampler
- Description
- The name “Betsy Bruce” appears at end of one alphabet. Below the alphabets is the inscription:
- "Seize Mortals seize the present hour Lifes a short summer
Man’s a flower he dies alas how soon he dies. E. B. 14 Y.”
The “E.B.” may stand for her sister Eveline Bruce who died July 21, 1817.
- Betsy Bruce’s inscription is an adaptation of an Ode for Winter by English poet Samuel Johnson (1709-1784). The sampler is stitched with silk and cotton embroidery thread on a linen ground with a thread count of warp 22, weft 22/ in. The stitches used are cross, Algerian eye, and crosslet
- Betsy Bruce was born on September 2, 1809, in Marlborough, Vermont to Rev. Mansfield and Grace Goddard Bruce. She married Origen Smith (1810-1884) on May 11, 1837. They had two children - Irenaeus OP born on February 5, 1841, and Elizabeth, born c.1845. Betsy died on October 4, 1882.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1822-1824
- maker
- Bruce, Betsy
- ID Number
- TE*T7729A
- catalog number
- T7729A
- accession number
- 139053
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center