18th Century American Samplers
In America, many distinct regional styles of sampler making evolved in the eighteenth century, molded by a combination of social, political, aesthetic and cultural influences. English work of this century tended to be more technically correct, precise and polished. American schoolmistresses, perhaps more tolerant of their students’ flights of fancy, and being revolutionaries themselves, inspired an equally impressive but somewhat less formal body of work on this side of the Atlantic. We feature designs from a wide range of American sampler schools, from early eighteenth century Boston, to the later, famous Balch School samplers of Providence, Rhode Island.