Sampler

This rare sampler documents the work being produced by girls at the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum (R. C. O. A.) located at 32 Prince Street in lower Manhattan between 1826 and 1886. The orphanage was run by the Catholic Sisters of Charity, the first American congregation of religious sisters, founded in 1809 in Emmitsburg, Maryland by Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821). Their mission was to provide free Catholic schooling for children of the poor. In 1817, Mother Seton sent three sisters to New York City to establish a Catholic orphanage, followed shortly afterward by a parochial school. At first the orphanage at Prince Street housed both boys and girls, but after 1851, boys occupied a new building uptown. The girls remained in the Prince Street building until 1886, when a new building was constructed for their use. In the mid-nineteenth century, around the time this sampler was made, because of the Irish potato famine of 1845-51, many Irish Catholics immigrated to New York City (according to the 1855 Census, 26% of Manhattan residents were Irish born,) and there was a great need for Catholic charities.



This sampler attests to the needlework skills taught to one unknown orphan girl at the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum. When the female orphans left the orphanage upon reaching adulthood, they needed to have some basic skills with which to make a living. In the mid-nineteenth century, the most likely fields for young women without family means to enter would be working as a housemaid or a seamstress. The precision and fineness of this sampler proves that this young woman had mastered her sewing lessons. She could have used this sampler as proof of her skills when looking for work, as well as proof of her piety. It is particularly poignant that the young woman who embroidered it wasn’t encouraged to sign her actual name to her work, only that the sampler was “Worked by an Orphan” at the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum.