Samplers

		Girlhood Embroidery : Samplers at Pilgrim Hall Museum by Peggy M. Baker, Director & Librarian Pilgrim Society & Pilgrim Hall Museum An exhibit sponsored by Mayflower Realty, May 2003

There are two ways of knowing the distant past. One is through the written record. The other is through artifacts, or the tangible remains left behind by our predecessors.

The women of Plymouth Colony are, for the most part, undocumented in the official records. Consequently, their lives, their concerns, their thoughts, and their aspirations are largely lost to us. And while we find a few (very few) women writers as we progress into the 18^th century, they are rarities and not representative of most women.

As a result, we must place even greater reliance and greater value on the artifacts of the women in order to understand their lives.

We have a number of "women’s artifacts" at Pilgrim Hall Museum. They include cradles, cooking utensils, tableware, a beaver hat, the portrait of Penelope Winslow and the portrait of Elizabeth Paddy Wensley. All these artifacts relate directly to women, but they were all made by men. The only artifacts at Pilgrim Hall that were made by women are textiles - a beaded purse, an embroidered tabletop -- and samplers.

Of the three, the samplers are probably the most significant – representing, as they do,

a form of art,
a form of education,
a form of pastime that endured for several centuries and which, through its evolution, can be examined for evidence of the changes in women’s lives.

Samplers appear in Europe in the early 16^th century as "reference books" of stitches and designs. As books of patterns appeared, the sampler’s importance as a reference began to lessen and its importance as a showpiece to display excellence and versatility in needlecraft began to grow. By the 17^th century, the needle arts were part of the formal education of English girls and samplers were serving a dual purpose as both reference and showpiece.

Samplers were generally worked in colored silks on linen. Early samplers are long and narrow, with random designs.

The first step in the evolution of the sampler, beginning in the mid-16^th century, was the designs being worked, not randomly, but in bands. The next step saw the introduction of signatures and rhymes. It is at this point that the American sampler story begins.

The first American-made sampler is the sampler embroidered by Loara Standish.