January', 19 13 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



25 



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laer Manor. The sampler bears 

 the date of 1772. The children 

 confined themselves to the alpha- 

 bet and numerals alone, but made 

 each letter twice, possibly in this 

 way giving each little girl her 

 chance. The sampler is unusual, 

 with its lines of eyelets between 

 the letters, and its embroidery of 

 heavy green silk, which contrasts 

 pleasantly with the deep yellow 

 which time has dyed the canvas. 



An oblong piece of finely woven 

 linen, hemmed on all four sides, 

 is Nancy Van Rensselaer's exact 

 imitation of the sampler of Mary 

 Richards, the grand-daughter of 

 Anneke Jans. Nancy worked her 

 sampler in 1785. Mary Richards 

 gives no date to hers, but both 

 are marvels of fine stitches on the 

 finest of linen, and as a conse- 

 quence the turtle-doves and 

 houses, the step-climbing Dutch 

 roofs, and the lighted candles in 

 tall candlesticks are diminutive in 

 the extreme; as true in their way 



Charlotte Gebhard, the thirteen-year-old daughter of the 

 Claverack domine, worked her sampler in 1792, 

 presumably on the parsonage doorstep or be- 

 side the evening candle, since Washington Semi- 

 nary 7 at Claverack was noted for its devotion 

 to dead languages and higher mathematics, ; Jfrr ; 

 rather than to female accomplishments. Be- : V" 



low Charlotte's marking letters she has out- 

 lined a wholly childish house in two parts, with 

 a chair and a bed in an upstairs room, and a 

 tree growing luxuriantly within the confines of 

 the lower story. These occasional touches of 

 originality in samplers denote home efforts and 

 a lenient mother behind the child's work. 



Jane and Mary Livingston both give the date 

 of their birth as well as that of their work. Jane was born 

 September, 1804, and chooses her inscription with a rare 

 sweet spirit, in these lines : •__- 





Wro 



Y/V.--> -1 ' ii. 



Here then your youthful time improve 

 All that is good admire and love. 

 To God your earliest homage pay, 

 And tread the path to endless day." 



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Sampler worked in 1823 by Mary T. Livingston 

 as words to the text 



A sampler of 1 767 



"Teach me to feel another's 

 woe, 



To hide the faults I see; 

 That mercy I to others show, 



That mercy show to me." 





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A special feature of the 

 younger sister's sampler is a bor- 

 der of single strawberries, with 

 Mary Livingston's name and date 

 of working woven in between the 

 red berries. 



Hannah Barton's sampler, 

 made at the Friend's Boarding 

 School at Nine Partners, in 1800, 

 shows most accurate and pains- 

 taking cross-stitch letters, and of- 

 fers every variety possible in 

 size and design. 



Ten years later Judith Van 

 Vechten, at the age of eight, 

 worked in fine cross-stitch, Pope's 

 Universal Prayer, learning to 

 make small letters before she had 

 finished the long poem. The 

 elaborate border of conventional 

 flowers which circles the prayer, 

 was doubtless her reward for 

 many an hour of tedious labor. Very different from these 

 is the map of the United States, and Upper and Lower 

 Canada, as they appeared in 181 5, worked 

 by Eliza P. Mott, at the age of ten, probably 

 at Miss Maltby's School in Catskill. The map 

 is exquisitely outlined on a fine canvas, eighteen 

 inches square. Each state and lake is bounded 

 by two shades of color. The names of states, 

 rivers, capes and islands are accurately given, 

 and worked in the plainest of letters, and the 

 finest of cross-stitch. Beyond the Mississippi 

 River is open space, only divided by the Mis- 

 souri River, but the boundaries of the states 

 east of the Mississippi are very much as they 

 are to-day. Through the South and middle West 

 portions of land are marked as occupied by 

 Osage, Choctaw, Seminole and Moscogee Indians. The 

 states, when large enough, contain two or three cities. 



New York State honors 



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This verse, together 

 with the alphabet and 

 numerals, is enclosed 

 within a border of straw- 

 berry vine. 



Jane's younger sister, 

 Mary Thong Livingston, 

 gives the year of her 

 birth as 18 10, and her 

 birthplace as Livingston, 

 and in her sentiment ig- 

 nores the fact that many 

 rhyming lines increase \-% M 

 the stitches called for, so 

 embroiders the following 

 bravely to the end: 



"What though the canvas 



charm the eye, 

 Soon will these colors fade 



and die, 

 But lo, the immortal mind 



must live 

 And the dread wreck of time 



survive. 



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Sampler worked in 1831 by Julia Ann Shufelt 



Sacketts' Harbor, as well 

 as Albany and New 

 York. 



Susan Ann Barnard's 

 sampler gives date and 

 place of working, as 

 "Hudson, April 27, 

 1 82 1," probably at the 

 school long kept by Miss 

 Susan Jenkins near the 

 present building of the 

 Daughters of the Ameri- 

 can Revolution. Here 

 every Friday afternoon 

 was devoted to needle- 

 work, and Susan Barn- 

 ard's long strip of loose- 

 woven canvas bears 

 creditable testimony to 

 the value of Miss Jen- 

 kin's training in the ele- 

 gant accomplishments of 

 embroidery and lettering 

 in fancy stitches. Nor is 

 this all. Its sentiment in 

 ( Continued on page 36 ) 



