Sampler

Margaret Cassedy’s Washington, D.C. sampler is one of a group of thirteen known as "Navy Yard" architectural samplers that date from 1810 to 1842. It is the mate to another sampler in The Met’s collection done twelve years earlier by Catherine Cassady (MMA 2007.77). The motifs in Margaret’s sampler are largely the same as Catherine’s and display the same layout as other known Navy Yard samplers: a verse at the top flanked by floral motifs, a centrally positioned brick structure on a grassy lawn, and a serpentine floral boarder. A distinctive characteristic of both Catherine’s and Margaret’s samplers is the design of central brick structure -- a three-towered building with a cross on each tower at the top of a stepped hill with grazing sheep. The building is a variant of the traditional needlework rendition of the Gates of Jerusalem, found on eighteenth century German samplers and on early nineteenth century Philadelphia and Delaware Valley samplers -- a design likely taught by a teacher of German descent. To either side of the stepped lawn of these samplers there are four identical courting couples standing under identical triangular pine trees. The symmetrical placement and stylized rendering of the terraced lawn, trees and figures, results in an overall spare, geometric design.

While Margaret Cassedy’s imagery is similar to Catherine’s, each girl selected a different verse to stitch in black silk thread above the towered building. Margaret’s verse, flanked by hearts and flowers, extolls health, peace, and competence and is from "Epistle IV" of Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man (1734). Catherine’s verse, flanked by vases of flowers, is a religious message attributed to the Rev. John Newton of London, written about 1750. Both verses often appear on British and American samplers and would have been familiar to schoolgirls in the opening decades of the nineteenth century. While Catherine signed and dated her earlier 1814 sampler, "Washington City;" Margaret’s later sampler uses "Washington D.C."

The exact relationship between Margaret Cassedy and Catherine Cassady is puzzling. Although their samplers are of the same design, and descended together in the same family, Margaret and Catherine spelled their last names differently and a record of Margaret’s birth and death dates remains unknown at this time.