Sampler
This square-shaped sampler is unusual in that its design is composed solely of cross-stitched rows of letters, numbers, and text, and displays no imagery, its only ornamentation a simple zig-zag border. The upper half has eight rows of alphabets and numbers, stitched in six different embroidery styles. The lower half text is a brief lesson in the history and geography of New York City, that was copied verbatim from two schoolbooks published in 1836: A System of School Geography by S. Griswold Goodrich and Smith’s Geography: Geography on the Productive System for Schools, Academies, and Families by Roswell C. Smith. Eight-year-old Mary Elizabeth practiced her arithmetic by calculating that 348 years passed between Columbus’s discovery of American in 1492 and the date she completed her sampler in 1840. The inscription of the date "AM 5844" -- referring to the year 1840 -- is less well known today. It is based on the prevailing conjecture that the world was thought to have been created 4004 years before Christ, so the year 1840 would translate to 5844.
Mary Elizabeth’s sampler was likely stitched in one of Manhattan’s public elementary schools and demonstrates how sampler-making continued to be used to teach lessons beyond learning to sew and the alphabet, in this case history and geography. On the right side the text extends past the two edge borders, which points to it being added after the borders were completed. The well-preserved sampler survives as the only known record of Mary Elizabeth Morse’s life.
Mary Elizabeth’s sampler was likely stitched in one of Manhattan’s public elementary schools and demonstrates how sampler-making continued to be used to teach lessons beyond learning to sew and the alphabet, in this case history and geography. On the right side the text extends past the two edge borders, which points to it being added after the borders were completed. The well-preserved sampler survives as the only known record of Mary Elizabeth Morse’s life.
Artwork Details
- Title: Sampler
- Artist: Mary Elizabeth Morse (American, born New York, 1832)
- Date: 1840
- Geography: Made in New York, New York, United States
- Culture: American
- Medium: Silk embroidery on linen
- Dimensions: 17 × 17 1/2 in. (43.2 × 44.5 cm)
- Credit Line: Friends of the American Wing Fund, 2015
- Object Number: 2015.708
- Curatorial Department: The American Wing
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