Sampler
Maker
Sarah Hartshorne
Period1806
MediumPlied silk thread on natural linen
DimensionsSight: 12.63 × 11.38 in. (32.1 × 28.9 cm)
SignedThe sampler is signed, "Sarah Hartshorne / Portland Sept' 6th 1806."
ClassificationsNeedlework
Credit LineGift of Mrs. Julia Hartshorne Trask, 1946
Object number2084.23
DescriptionA square sampler worked in fine plied silk threads in shades of medium blue, dark blue, medium green, olive green, light golden brown, tan, and off white on natural linen. The linen appears to have been woven with several small slubs or imperfections, the most noticeable appearing between the w and o of the word "worth" in the sampler's verse.The stitches include cross, long-armed cross, Algerian eyelet, and queen. Within a rectangle outlined by a narrow border of long-armed cross stitch is a half-inch upper case alphabet in Algerian eyelet stitch, a 3/4 inch upper case cursive alphabet from A to Y in simple cross stitch, and a half-inch lower case alphabet, numerals one through nine, and the year 1806 also in simple cross stitch. A horizontal strawberry vine serves as a dividing border between the alphabets and the lower third of the rectangle. Below the vine is worked the verse "The modest snow drop emblem of fair truth / Conveys this lesson to the thoughts of youth / That unassuming worth will ever find / A warm reception in a generous mind." Below the verse is the signature "Sarah Hartshorne / Portland Sept' 6th 1806." A continuous strawberry and leave vine creates a wide continuous border around the entire sampler. Curatorial RemarksTen-year-old Sarah Hartshorne put the final stitches in her carefully worked sampler on 6 September 1806. Sampler research over the past decades has largely dispelled the notion that girls worked on their samplers under the watchful eyes of their mothers, and instead has revealed that the majority of samplers were produced in formal educational settings such as day academies or boarding schools with the direction of trained needlework instructresses. In Sarah's case, however, the original notion is most likely true. Her elegant sampler, bearing the name of the family's estate near Highlands, Monmouth County, called Portland, may well have been done under the tutelage of her aunt Ann Ustick (1772 - 1830). Ann, who grew up in New York City, was unmarried and lived much of her adult life with her sister Susannah Ustick Hartshorne (1760 - 1833) in the Hartshorne household. Ann died at Portland and was interred in the private family burying ground on Kings Highway in Middletown village. Ann Ustick clearly received early needlework training herself and was well aware of fashionable sampler design and execution. Several needlework pieces, including the eighteenth century crewlework bed hangings also in the Assocation's collection (see accession number 1988.677) descended within the Hartshorne family apparently through the Usticks.NotesSarah Hartshorne was born in 1796, a daughter of Richard Hartshorne (1752 - 1831) and his wife Susannah Ustick (1760 - 1833). The ancestral Hartshorne estate located at the Highlands, Monmouth County, was called Portland since the seventeeth century. A very devout Episcopalian, Sarah was employed as a matron at St. Mary's Hall school for girls and at Burlington College for boys in Burlington, NJ, both Episcopal institutions supported by the Rt. Rev. George Washington Doane, Bishop of New Jersey. Later Sarah taught school in Red Bank, Monmouth County. She died unmarried on 27 October 1854 at the age of fifty-eight years, and was interred in the private family burying ground on Kings Highway in Middletown village. For many years, Sarah made her home with her single sister Eliza (1794 - 1848).
Collections
ProvenanceSarah Hartshorne (1796 - 1854); to her nephew Benjamin Minturn Hartshorne (1826 - 1900); to his daughter Mrs. Julia Hartshorne Trask (1863 - 1955). The Julia Hartshorne Trask Sampler Collection
