Embroidered Sampler

The decorative motifs on this sampler, halves of counted cross-stitch patterns, identify it as being completed at a Quaker school. Reflecting the Quaker emphasis on practicality, the sampler maker only had to master half of each of the "snowflake" motifs because she could complete the whole motif by simply stitching a mirror image of the half on the sampler. The full design, referred to after a girl’s schooling was done, was used to create patterns for embellishing clothing or linens.

In 1779, the Quakers founded their first co-educational boarding school, the Ackworth School in Yorkshire, England, and soon after Quaker schools were opened in other areas of England. By 1799, the Westtown School was opened near Philadelphia in the United States. These well-respected schools were financially accessible to most, reinforcing the Quaker beliefs in equality, and provided both girls and boys with a strong academic education. The curriculum was largely the same for both sexes, although in the early years of the schools, girls spent less time on topics like science and mathematics, which were traditionally thought to be more important for boys to learn. Instead, the girls took embroidery and sewing classes. Sewing skills would stand them in good stead whether they worked in the home or outside it as seamstresses or teachers, which were some of the few professions open to women in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Samplers made at Quaker schools tended to be utilitarian, like this exercise in pattern marking, rather than intentionally decorative.

It is hard to know exactly at which Quaker school this sampler was made, or if it originated at an English or American school. Those created at the Ackworth School tend to be more intricate and often include the school’s name within the design. It does not appear to be from any of the known American schools either; for a related example from the Westtown School, see 2005.463.2. American Quaker samplers are also often inscribed with the school’s name, and the embroidery work was usually more delicate than the stitching on this piece. This sampler has a fairly coarse linen ground, and the monochromatic dark green cross-stitched patterns are bold. It is decorated with at least two patterns also found on another English Quaker sampler in the collection (57.122.613). Today, eight Quaker secondary schools remain in England, while many more than that number continue to thrive in the United States.