Sampler

Title:

Sampler

Object Name:

Sampler

Creator:

Ann Taylor Gilman

Date:

1740-1750

Material:

Linen (?), silk thread

Dimensions:

H-4.75 L-21 Dia-7 inches
Sampler: Width 7", Length 7 �
Frame dimensions
Width: 11 �"
Length: 14 �"
Depth: 2"

Description:

A small sampler stitched on natural unbleached fabric of plain weave, probably linen, with multi-colored silk thread. There are six rows of border stitches on the top, in green, yellow and black, followed by six rows of the alphabet, stiched three times, none of them complete. Following the alphabet is "ANN + TAYLOR+/ HER+ SAMPLER" and then the last line appers to be a date, but is unreadable. There is a 1/8 inch hem on three sides and the right side was salvage. The warp is approximatley 24 to 25 threads per inch, and the weft is approximately 34 to 35 threads per inch. The salvage warp is approximately 32 threads per inch, and about 1/4 inch wide. The warp threads appear to be irregular in width. It is now stitched onto the canvas with 40/2 threads.

Provenance:

This sampler is the handiwork of Ann Taylor, daughter of the Reverend John Taylor of Milton, Massachusetts, and a descendant of Mary Chilton. She married Nicholas Gilman on December 21, 1752, and came to the Ladd-Gilman house as his bride. She died on December 17, 1783.

In the 1740s, samplers were often done as part of a girl's schoolwork, and were therefore modeled on the schoolmisstress' pattern. According to Mary Jane Edmunds in "Samplers and Samplemakers - An American Schoolgirl Art: 1700-1850," by 1738, "the number of teachers and needlework classrooms had grown at a prodigious rate...At first, samplers were used by schoolmisstresses to train small children to stitch in order to make initials on clothing and household linens...Embroidery in all its complexities, was the foremost accomplish of a well-brought up young woman...Samplers...made in classrooms...were often the first - and sometimes the only - step in a young colonial woman's education."

This sampler was presented to the Society of the Cincinnati of New Hampshire by Ann Taylor's great-grand daughter Mary Taylor Gilman Gordon, and Ellen Gordon.

Subjects:

Sampler, Textile art, Textiles

People:

Gilman, Gilman, Ann Taylor

Place of Origin:

New Hampshire

Collection Name:

Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Hampshire

Item Number:

1990.185

Accession Number:

1990.185

Type of Material:

Objects

Copyright Statement:

For information regarding copyright, permissions, and reproductions contact the American Independence Museum

Credit Line:

Gift of Mary Gilman Gordon and Ellen Gordon, great-grandaughters of Ann Taylor Gilman, October 15, 1903.

Participating Organization:

American Independence Museum