Sampler
This bright and cheerful sampler made by Elizabeth L[ydia] Smith in 1825 belies the fact that ten-year-old Elizabeth had recently lost both her mother Martha Otis Smith (1790-1824), and three younger siblings by the time she completed this family record sampler in 1825. In addition to the information on her family, Elizabeth stitched four alphabets above the family record, and a design below showing two sturdy five bay houses, with smaller dependencies on each side. Altogether each house supports four large chimneys. Between the houses there are tall vases overflowing with oversized pink roses. The wide border surrounding all four sides of the central block is also composed of pink roses, looking almost as vibrant today as they were when they were first embroidered.
The sampler has unusually well-preserved colors for a piece created two hundred years ago. The pink-dyed silk thread found on most samplers usually appears to be almost white, since pink dyes used at the time faded extremely easily. This may mean that this piece was never framed and hung on a wall by the family and likely spent most of its life kept safely in a drawer or cupboard.
Elizabeth’s sampler is also somewhat of a rarity because her teacher Maria Melcher Street (1807-1833), who designed the overall pattern, is named in the sampler’s inscription. There are two other samplers known that were completed under Maria Street’s instruction. One is almost identical to this one (although quite a bit more faded) and was made by Elizabeth’s first cousin Esther S.(mith?) Tyler. It is now in the collection of the Connecticut Historical Society (2010.103.0). Another similar piece made by Elmina Barnes (now in a private collection) features only one house.
When Elizabeth completed her sampler she was living in East Haven, Connecticut, a town three miles east of the city of New Haven, as was her teacher Maria M. Street. It is unknown where Maria got her training, but from what is known of her life, and the fact that all three extant samplers are dated 1825, she only taught for a brief period of time. At age twenty-four, on October 18, 1827, Maria married Lucius Hotchkiss (1803-1880) and moved with him to New Haven where she had three children in quick succession. Her third child, Ann Maria, was born on August 10, 1833, and survived for only twenty-one days, dying on August 31, and unfortunately Maria followed her on September 2, 1833 at age twenty-nine.
Although Elizabeth was born in East Haven, as was her father Marvin Smith (1787-1861), after her mother Martha died in 1824, Marvin remarried and moved with his new wife and children from both marriages to Honeoye Falls, a village within the town of Mendon in Monroe County, New York. Monroe County is in western New York State on the southern edge of Lake Ontario and was likely very much the frontier at the time the family is first recorded living there in the 1830 census. In the 1850 census, Marvin is listed as a farmer, with land valued at $15,000. This implies he moved west to Monroe County where he eventually owned a large farm because land was more readily available than it was in Connecticut.
When this sampler first entered the museum’s collection in 2000, it came with a family history from a member of the Ostrander family, the family that had owned the sampler, which had traveled down through several generations. Although the sampler clearly says it was made by "Elizabeth L. Smith", the Ostranders attributed it to "Lydia Elizabeth Smith" and they believed she had created it in Orleans County, New York rather than in East Haven, Connecticut. Orleans County borders Monroe County, where Elizabeth’s father lived by 1830. The confusion as to where the piece was made, and why it was owned by the Ostrander family can be explained by the fact that sometime around 1837, a Lydia Elizabeth Smith with the same recorded birth date as Elizabeth L[ydia] Smith married Christopher Russell Ostrander (1811-1875) and moved with him from Monroe County to Orleans County. When she switched her name from Elizabeth Lydia to Lydia Elizabeth is unknown, but everything points to the two inverted names both belonging to the same woman. She had two daughters, Martha and Julia, before she passed away on August 18, 1841 at the young age of twenty-five. She is buried in the Otter Creek Cemetery in Gaines, Orleans County, New York.
The sampler has unusually well-preserved colors for a piece created two hundred years ago. The pink-dyed silk thread found on most samplers usually appears to be almost white, since pink dyes used at the time faded extremely easily. This may mean that this piece was never framed and hung on a wall by the family and likely spent most of its life kept safely in a drawer or cupboard.
Elizabeth’s sampler is also somewhat of a rarity because her teacher Maria Melcher Street (1807-1833), who designed the overall pattern, is named in the sampler’s inscription. There are two other samplers known that were completed under Maria Street’s instruction. One is almost identical to this one (although quite a bit more faded) and was made by Elizabeth’s first cousin Esther S.(mith?) Tyler. It is now in the collection of the Connecticut Historical Society (2010.103.0). Another similar piece made by Elmina Barnes (now in a private collection) features only one house.
When Elizabeth completed her sampler she was living in East Haven, Connecticut, a town three miles east of the city of New Haven, as was her teacher Maria M. Street. It is unknown where Maria got her training, but from what is known of her life, and the fact that all three extant samplers are dated 1825, she only taught for a brief period of time. At age twenty-four, on October 18, 1827, Maria married Lucius Hotchkiss (1803-1880) and moved with him to New Haven where she had three children in quick succession. Her third child, Ann Maria, was born on August 10, 1833, and survived for only twenty-one days, dying on August 31, and unfortunately Maria followed her on September 2, 1833 at age twenty-nine.
Although Elizabeth was born in East Haven, as was her father Marvin Smith (1787-1861), after her mother Martha died in 1824, Marvin remarried and moved with his new wife and children from both marriages to Honeoye Falls, a village within the town of Mendon in Monroe County, New York. Monroe County is in western New York State on the southern edge of Lake Ontario and was likely very much the frontier at the time the family is first recorded living there in the 1830 census. In the 1850 census, Marvin is listed as a farmer, with land valued at $15,000. This implies he moved west to Monroe County where he eventually owned a large farm because land was more readily available than it was in Connecticut.
When this sampler first entered the museum’s collection in 2000, it came with a family history from a member of the Ostrander family, the family that had owned the sampler, which had traveled down through several generations. Although the sampler clearly says it was made by "Elizabeth L. Smith", the Ostranders attributed it to "Lydia Elizabeth Smith" and they believed she had created it in Orleans County, New York rather than in East Haven, Connecticut. Orleans County borders Monroe County, where Elizabeth’s father lived by 1830. The confusion as to where the piece was made, and why it was owned by the Ostrander family can be explained by the fact that sometime around 1837, a Lydia Elizabeth Smith with the same recorded birth date as Elizabeth L[ydia] Smith married Christopher Russell Ostrander (1811-1875) and moved with him from Monroe County to Orleans County. When she switched her name from Elizabeth Lydia to Lydia Elizabeth is unknown, but everything points to the two inverted names both belonging to the same woman. She had two daughters, Martha and Julia, before she passed away on August 18, 1841 at the young age of twenty-five. She is buried in the Otter Creek Cemetery in Gaines, Orleans County, New York.
Artwork Details
- Title: Sampler
- Artist: Elizabeth L[ydia] Smith (1815–1841)
- Date: 1825
- Geography: Made in New Haven County, East Haven, Connecticut, United States
- Culture: American
- Medium: Silk embroidery on linen
- Dimensions: 22 3/4 x 21 1/4 in. (57.8 x 54 cm)
- Credit Line: Purchase, Joel B. Leff Gift, 2000
- Object Number: 2000.482
- Curatorial Department: The American Wing
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