Sampler

Period1814

MediumSilk plied thread on fine linen

DimensionsSight: 6.5 × 6 in. (16.5 × 15.2 cm)

SignedThe sampler's signature reads "Worked for Eliza Franklin, a member / of the Female Association, by Dorothy / Gardner aged 10 years, January 1814. / in the Female Association School 1."

ClassificationsNeedlework

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Julia Hartshorne Trask, 1946

Object number2084.41

DescriptionThis small sampler is carefully worked in silk plied embroidery thread in shades of red, dark and light green, light blue, black/brown, tan, and pale yellow on an extremely fine linen ground, all in single or double cross stitch. The central verse reads "MEEKNESS / The meek shall increase their joy / in the Lord and the poor among men / shall rejoice in the holy One of Israel." Beneath the verse, bordered by a chain stitch line embroidered in a single strand of black silk thread, is the inscription "Worked for Eliza Franklin, a member / of the Female Association, by Dorothy / Gardner aged 10 years, January 1814. / in the Female Association School 1." Above the verse title is a wavy foliate vine in pale green and tan, flanked by distinctive floral baskets with double handles, the left with six red flowers amid green leaves, and the right with six red-eyed white flowers with pale green leaves. On either side of the sampler's verse are vertical undulating strawberry-and-leaf vines. Below the verse and inscription is a central motif of three rosebuds and leaves worked in sage green and pale pink, flanked by identical stylized floral bunches in small two-handled vases, worked in brown and pale tan. Two small, short horizontal wavy bands flank the rosebuds, worked in off-white. The sampler's linen ground appears to have a finely worked pulled thread edge, barely visible along the frame's edges.
Curatorial RemarksIn 1798, a group of Quaker women came together to organize relief efforts for the sufferers of Yellow Fever in New York City. Education quickly became part of their efforts, and in the summer of 1801 the first of several schools opened. According to William Bourne, an early chronicler of the Public School Society, the schools were open to boys only. However, "apartments were reserved...for the use of female schools, and in these rooms the Female Association, composed of ladies, members of the Society of Friends, conducted schools for girls...besides the elementary parts of education, they taught needlework and other useful skills." (William Oland Bourne, History of the Public School Society of the City of New York, W. Wood & Company, 1870) A second school was opened in 1812, a third in 1815, and a fourth in 1817. A number of the early graduates became teachers within the Association themselves. The Female Association continued its educational efforts until 1845, when the Public School Society of New York assumed responsibility for the Association's schools. Among the names of identified instructors at the schools is that of needlework teacher Rebecca Leggett, whose name appears on a Female Association sampler made by student Susanna Anderson and dated 1819. Leggett was later offered the position as preceptress of the Female Association School No. 2 on Henry Street in New York City, at a salary of $200. The close resemblance between the Association's little sampler made by Dorothy Gardner and other Female Association samplers produced under the instruction of Rebecca Leggett may indicate that Leggett was Dorothy's own needlework teacher in 1814. For further information on the Female Association Schools and their needlework, see Betty Ring, Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers & Pictorial Needlework, 1650 - 1850 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993), 318 - 319.NotesThis small and beautifully worked sampler is one of a number of closely related samplers produced by students of the Female Association schools run by civic-minded Quaker women in New York City during the early decades of the 19th century. This particular sampler was produced by ten year old Dorothy Gardner, who attended the Female Association School No. 1, located on Chatham Street. Gardner has not been conclusively identified, although she may be the Dorothy Gardner born in 1803 in New York City who later married Daniel Van Reed (1800 - 1886). She died in December 1881 and was interred in Brooklyn. Another Female Association sampler, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was made by Charlotte Gardner and dated 1813. Charlotte may have been an older sister or close relative of Dorothy's. Dorothy Gardner's sampler includes the information that it was "worked for Eliza Franklin, a member of the Female Association." Eliza Franklin may be related to Maria Franklin, whose name appears on another Female Association sampler made by student Ann Hayden and dated 1815. Maria Franklin (1787 - 1867), the daughter of prominent New York City resident Thomas Franklin (1762 - 1830), was a member of the Quaker Female Association.

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