1831 Sarah Harriet Stephenson Model Finished

1831 Sarah Harriet Stephenson
Spring Hill, Maury Co.
16 1/4"V x 18"H © TSS 015



Connie Winslett finished the model for the 1831 Sarah Harriet Stephenson (TSS 015) reproduction this week. Many thanks to Connie for stitching so quickly and expertly!

Here is a sneak peak at one of the motifs--the little dog that gives this group of samplers their name (original sampler is on the left; reproduction sampler is on the right). I matched the stitching threads (from Olde Willow Stitchery, especially dyed for this project) to the back of the sampler, which account for the difference in color.

Make sure to pick up a copy of the spring issue (Vol. 54) of Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly, which will publish the complete chart and an article I wrote about Middle Tennessee samplers.

1925 Anne Orr Design Studio Sampler

1925 Anne Champe Orr Design Studio Employee
Nashville, Davidson Co.
22 1/2"V x 17"H © TSS 213

Janet and I documented this intriguing motif sampler during our last foray into Brentwood. Although our cut-off date is 1900, we completed a thorough analysis of this piece because of the signature.



Anne Champe Orr (1869-1946), a native of Nashville, was a well-known quilt and needlework designer. She was needlework columnist for Good Housekeeping in the 1930s. She was an entrepreneur, ultimately employing dozens of women to produce her designs and directing a successful mail order business from her home in present-day Hillsboro Village (21st and Belcourt, today the site of another Nashville institution, the Pancake Pantry).

This sampler was probably not worked by Anne Orr herself, as she held a noted antipathy towards the needle. In her book Hard Covers for Soft Times, Merikay Waldvogel quotes Orr's neighbor, Andrena Phillips, "I don't think Anne Orr knew anything about a needle…I thought it was strange that someone could do all those needlework patterns without knowing a bit about the needle."

We believe that this sampler was a product of Orr's "needlework cabinet," the model stitchers who crafted her patterns in embroidery.

Merikay Waldvogel will be presenting her most recent (quilt-related) research on Anne Orr at the 2008 seminar of the American Quilt Study Group, to be held October 2-6 in Columbus, OH.

Waldvogel, Merikay. "Refining the Tradition: Anne Champe Orr, 1875-1946." Soft Covers for Hard Times: Quiltmaking and the Great Depression. Nashville,TN: Rutledge Hill Press, 1990, pp. 24-37.

Article on Tennessee Samplers

An article I wrote for Needle Arts, published by the Embroiderers' Guild of America, is in the latest issue.


The article is an overview of the work we do. Three samplers, one from each part of the state, are featured.

The Embroiderers' Guild of America is "is a national non-profit educational organization offering study and preservation of the heritage and art of embroidery."

Citation for article: Core, Jennifer C. "Tennessee Samplers." Needle Arts. September 2008: 12-15.

Documentation Day in East Tennessee

1845 Minerva E. Carmack
Hawkins Co.
13 3/4"V x 10 1/2"H © TSS 217

Hawkins County, in northeast Tennessee, was founded before Tennessee was incorporated as a state. The Rogersville area was settled beginning in 1775. This early settlement accounts for the significant percentage of samplers that we have found from Hawkins County (five of 30 East Tennessee samplers/embroideries to date).


Minerva E. Carmack stitched that she was "Aged/17.ys" in "May/1845" in the space around the house.

c. 1800-1805 Mourning Embroidery

c. 1800-1805 Mourning Embroidery
East Tennessee?
19"V x 16 1/4"H © TSS 216

We documented a mourning embroidery yesterday. The piece was found in the attic of a house in Knoxville. We hope, through land deed searches, to connect it to an East Tennessee family. The texts on the embroidery, which are rendered in ink, read:

In Death Remembered
As in life Beloved

NOT LOST BUT GONE BEFORE

In Memory of
MAB
Who Departed
1794

Mourning embroidery was extremely popular in the first quarter of the 19th century, from 1800 to 1825. A young woman would, if she were fortunate to attend a female academy, work a memorial as the culmination of her needlework eduction.


A professional artist or an artistically inclined teacher would draw the pattern on silk. The young woman could then tint the background with watercolor and embroider the main motifs.


The only date on this embroidery is "1794," but that is the date of the death of the individual being memorialized, not the date of creation. It was probably worked within ten years of 1794.

Texts on Samplers

When we document a sampler, we are always careful to copy any texts exactly as they were stitched. The moralist verses can appear again and again throughout the 19th century. Since most of our stitchers failed to follow APA or MLA format, I often page through online hymnals in search of the author.

The 1851 Francis E. Hulme sampler contains four verses from three different sources: Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts, and Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans. Charles Wesley (1707-1788), early leader of the Methodist church, wrote lyrics for 5000 to 8000 hymns, including "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing!" and "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing!" Isaac Watts (1674-1748) was less prolific, with only 750 hymns to his credit. He does retain the title of "Father of English Hymnody," having the advantage of age over the upstart Wesley. Watts' verses include "Joy to the World!" and "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." Poet Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans (1793-1835) was well known in her life-time; Percy Bysshe Shelley, Sir Walter Scott and William Wordsworth were among her admirers.


O God most merciful and true
Thy nature to my soul impart
Establish with me the covenant new
And stamp thine image on my heart

source: slight variant of Verse 1, “O God, Most Merciful and True,” words by Charles Wesley


We walk by faith of joys to come
Faith lives upon his werd
But while our body is our home
We’re absent from the Lord

source: Verse 4, Hymn 110, words by Isaac Watts


[L]o! the dream of [life is o’er]
[Pain] the Christians [lot] no more
Kindred spirit [rise] with me
Thine the [meed] of [victory]

[Significant thread loss indicated by brackets]

Now no more shall virtue faint.
Happy spirit of the saint.
Thine the halo of the skies.
Thine the seraph’s paradise.

source: Verses 1 and 3, “The Song of a Seraph” by Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans

Verse 1 is above the white house and Verse 3 is above the red house. Francis stitched Verse 1 in lavender wool thread, which has suffered loss. Verse 3 was worked in a light blue wool thread, which does not contrast sufficiently with the ground fabric to appear in the photograph.

Documentation Day in Brentwood

Monday was a very productive day. Janet and I documented two samplers in the morning from a private collection, then planned our itineraries for more documentations trips, make a quick stop at OfficeMax (where we are well known to all the staff), documented a Williamson County sampler in the afternoon, and then I attended a seminar presented by the Tennessee Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (a very worthwhile organization) on copyright law.

We are up to 215 samplers now.

Our afternoon was somewhat marred by problems with the lighting kit. As I was preparing to shoot the gray card/first overall capture, one of the the light bulbs burst, rather spectacularly. Fortunately, I had set up on hardwood, not carpet, so a broom and dustpan cleared away the shattered glass. We decided to let the equipment cool down and then pack it up. The owner has expressed an interest in having the sampler conserved, and I will be able to get better photos when it is removed from the frame. The light kit has been performing admirably up until now, and considering the number of times I have set up and broken down those tripods...I guess we can't complain too much.

I did get some images by using the ambient light and a long exposure, though the sampler is much more vibrant and impressive in person. Here's the latest from Williamson County:



1851 Francis E. Hulme
Williamson Co.
Private Collection
© TSS 214

We are very excited about this sampler. It shows a clear relationship to the 1854 Margaret Elizabeth Kirkpatrick (TSS 010) and the 1855 Sarah Ann Brown (TSS 002). The maker, Francis Elizabeth? Hulme, was 23 when she worked it, which is ten years older than most of our stitchers. In fact, she is the oldest stitcher we have found. The Hulme family lived in District 6 of Williamson Co. Francis finished the sampler in January 1851 and married in December 1851. Sadly, she died in 1854, probably from complications of childbirth.