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QUAKER SCHOOL
GIRL SAMPLERS FROM ACKWORTH
by Carol Humphrey
 In
addition to over 200 pictures of Ackworth samplers (approximately
half of them from the school, the other half from museums and
private collections), full text detailing the background, history,
and lives of the girls who made the samplers is included. Inside the
book jacket, there is a charted pattern for a new medallion sampler.
The book measures 10" x 12", and is 250 pages. $70.00
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 STITCHED
IN ADVERSITY: Samplers of the Poor
In this historical exhibition ' Stitched In Adversity' a number of
these beautifully stitched examples are on show. A sampler worked by
Susannah Carter ' In the asylum' in 1800, is one such piece, with a
text beginning
'We are orphans and fatherless
We have no parents but our god.......'
Also depicted on this sampler is a red brick building with a young
girl in the doorway alongside a poignant image of another face
peering out of a top window at the world below, these simple images
produce an air of forlorn desolation and are immensely moving.
In 1742 Captain Thomas Coram, a master mariner and philanthropist,
established The London Foundling Hospital from which one exquisite
tiny christening pillow, stitched with hair, will be featured .
Amongst the most recognizable orphanage samplers are those worked in
the Bristol homes founded by George Muller in 1836. By 1870 over
2,000 orphans were housed in his premises. A superbly worked sampler
dated 1874 by Charlotte Eleanor Cullum would have been used to
demonstrate her sewing skills to future employers as well as
providing her with a repertoire of sewing stitches which she could
use for future reference.
Cheltenham Female Orphan Asylum also taught fine needlework. In 1806
their stated aim was to 'clothe, maintain and educate female orphans
and other female children of the poor. To inculcate into their
tender minds such principals of religion and morality, to rescue
them from the contamination of idleness and vice and train them up
in the habit of industrious and cheerful obedience, by instructing
them in such kinds of housework as may qualify them for servants in
respectable households'.
Other samplers in this fascinating exhibition include examples from
Raines Asylum, Dover Charity School, Greenwich Union Infirmary, The
Orphan School Calcutta and Hull Infirmary etc.
Whilst needlework was the foundation stone of female education and
an important activity for daughters of the middle classes, samplers
were worked by all strata of society. Some of the finest work to
survive is that produced by the poorest girls in the most adverse
conditions.. This work produced in poor houses, orphanages, charity
schools and asylums can provide us with some of the most moving
tributes to female endeavor in the 18th and 19th centuries.. For
these children being skilled with a needle was a passport to a
better life.
This latest full color catalogue from Witney Antiques features
samplers made by orphans and other less fortunate individuals, in
18th and 19th century England.
$40.00
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TOKENS OF LOVE: The Provenance,
Purposes and Constituents of English Needlework,
Samplers of Poor Girls, and their life in Poor and
Orphan Schools by Vivian Crellin
This book is a deeply
researched labor of love covering the provenance,
purposes and constituents of English needlework
samplers, with a description and explanation of samplers
from charity, poor and orphan schools. The book includes
chapters on the history and traditions of English
samplers, the needlework of men and Celtic traditions in
the Isle of Man, Wales, and Scotland, as well as forty
colored illustrations and thirty in black and white.
This is a must-have, authoritative work of reference
that will find its way onto the shelves of many museums,
colleges and institutions.
$65.00
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