The Delaware Sampler Discovery Group will host a Delaware Sampler
Identification Day at The New Castle Historical Society at 30 Market Street in
New Castle, Delaware, on Saturday, October 1, 2016, from 10:00 am-4:00 pm.
Please bring your eighteenth and/or nineteenth century samplers
and any supporting family information to be photographed and documented by the
Delaware Sampler Discovery Group. If you have more than two samplers, please
make an appointment by contacting Cynthia Steinhoff at 410-647-6451 or cksteinhoff@gmail.com.
About Delaware Needlework Samplers
A needlework sampler is a piece of embroidery produced as a
demonstration or test of skill in needlework and was usually stitched by girls
while attending school. Samplers and related schoolgirl embroideries frequently
include alphabets, figures, motifs, verses, pictorial scenes, and decorative
borders. In addition, they often include the name of the girl who stitched the
sampler, the date when it was created, as well as names of family members and
perhaps even a teacher. Most importantly, samplers provide an extremely rare
window into the lives of girls and young women of early America.
Background
The New Castle Historical Society is partnering with the Delaware
Sampler Discovery Group, which has been active for more than ten years, on a
statewide initiative to locate, document, and photograph schoolgirl samplers in
Delaware’s public and private collections. In collaboration with other
organizations, the group held two ID Days in 2015, two in 2014, and five in
2013, with funds provided by the Delaware Humanities Forum and private donors
leading to the discovery of many unpublished Delaware samplers.
Another partner, the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover, DE,
hosted an ID Day in June 2015 and several of the earlier identification events.
In March 2014 the Biggs Museum was the site of an exhibition and three–day
symposium on Delaware genealogical samplers entitled Wrought with Careful
Hand: Ties of Kinship on Delaware Samplers. The exhibition was accompanied
by a catalog with the same title.
Dr. Gloria Seaman Allen will research Delaware sampler discoveries
for a comprehensive study of Delaware girlhood embroideries with a publication
date of fall 2017.
For more information or to make an appointment to bring your
sampler to the New Castle ID Day, contact Cynthia Steinhoff at 410-647-7451 or cksteinhoff@gmail.com.
