24 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



January, 19 13 



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Collectors' Department 



Samplers 



of the 



Other Days 



By Elizabeth L. Gebhard 



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ANY a woman has given thought to a child the capital and small letters, and the numerals, sometimes 



of the past, in prose if not in verse, as she adding the alphabet in script, but even in mere lettering 



spread before her a narrow strip or square there was variety, for while some contented themselves with 



of homespun linen, on which was written be- simple cross-stitch, in varied shades of silk to relieve the 



hind faded silk, a chapter of a woman's life tedium, others launched out in a different stitch for each 



in the making. One of these, a sampler of letter as long as their knowledge of needlework continued. 



long ago, was Margaret Sangster, who wrote : 



"Faded and square of canvas, 



Dim is the silken thread — 



But I think of white hands dimpled, 



And a childish, sunny head; 



For here in cross and tent-stitch, 



In a wreath of berry and vine, 



She worked it a hundred years ago, 



'Elizabeth, aged nine.' " 



Only in rare instances were children's portraits painted in 

 the early days of the nation. At still rarer intervals were 

 the tales of their lives inscribed between the pages of sober 

 history, but the old samples of our 

 grandmothers and our many-times- 

 great-grandmothers are in reality 

 childish story books, with many 

 leaves of homespun illustrations of 

 embroidery, and painstaking letter- 

 ing of silk. 



Many of the early samplers were 

 made in school from approved pat- 

 terns, the teacher's eye leading the 

 youthful fingers of the scholar 

 toward perfection, yet in spite of 

 this attention, original childish ef- 

 forts crept into their work. Rhym- 

 ing lines were continued until the 

 canvas was exhausted. Capital let- 

 ters were inserted in the middle of 

 a word, and punctuation was often 

 omitted altogether. 



A Philadelphia paper of an 

 early date advertised a school of 

 numerous accomplishments kept by 

 Mrs. Sarah Wilson, in these terms: 



"Young ladies may be educated 

 in a genteel manner, and pains taken 

 to teach them in regard to their be- 

 haviour, on reasonable terms. They 

 may be taught all sorts of fine 

 needlework, viz., working on catgut 

 or flowering muslin, satin stitch, 

 quince stitch, tent stitch, cross stitch, 

 open work, tambour, embroidering 

 curtains or chairs, writing or cypher- 

 ing, etc." 



Almost unvaryingly samplers gave 



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Sampler worked in 1 82 1 by Susan Ann Barnard 



Into one of the Dutch homes on the Hudson, a Yankee 

 girl's sampler has found its way, though it speaks of New 

 England loyalty with no uncertain sound. Below her letters 

 and numerals she stitched this introduction to herself and 

 her future hopes : 



"Mary Williams is my name, 

 And Boston is my dwelling place, 

 New England is my nashun, 

 And Christ is my salvation. 



"I roght this in the 1 2th year of my age 1 749." 

 Phonetic spelling seems to have been a talent with Mary, 

 as well as realistic picture embroid- 

 ery, which holds more than half the 

 space of her sampler. The picture 

 is that of Creation. Water in three 

 shades or strata contain fish, ducks, 

 and water-lilies successively. Be- 

 hind the floods rise three hills, each 

 bearing a tree at its apex. In two 

 of the trees a parrot rests happily, 

 causing one to wonder if in Mary's 

 view the parrot was the first animal 

 created with the power of speech. 

 The worker did not stop here, but 

 she embroidered patiently two birds 

 with outstretched wings in the blue 

 sky above, and then betook herself 

 to what she considered her master- 

 piece — Adam standing under the 

 center tree, with each rib outlined in 

 black against his body. Surely evo- 

 lution at its greatest lengths has not 

 conceived anything more convenient 

 as a nucleus in forming Eve than 

 the needlework picture of this New 

 England girl of twelve. 



I am told that these pictures of 

 Creation sometimes give Eve also 

 standing under the center tree, pre- 

 sumably portraying a day later. 



Occasionally the children of a 

 family worked a sampler together, 

 as did Frances, Margaret and Eliza- 

 beth Nicoll, grandchildren of Colo- 

 nel Johannes Van Rensselaer, the 

 Patroon of the Lower Van Rensse- 



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