In the 19th hundred , dying was but part of liveliness . gamey baby mortality , primitive sanitation , and a lack of canonical health attention meant that those lucky enough to survive were surrounded with reminders of the brevity of life at all time . And nobody was excluded from elaborate lamentation ritual dedicated to celebrate and crying over the dearly depart , not even nestling .
Created around 1850,this samplerwas painstakingly transverse - sewn with silk on cotton , presumably by a young little girl learn how to stitch . It ’s dedicated to “ Grandmother ” and shows some angels crying at a grave . Ananchor — symbol of hope and the crabby — leaning against the grave , indicating that Grandma has probably gone on to better thing .
It must have take the sampling station ’s creator a foresighted meter to tailor it : It ’s nearly a foundation tall and over 15 inches wide . That ’s a lot of cross - stitch , especially for a child .
And its creator was more than likely a kid . sampling station were an important man of the instruction of any upper - class little girl , who would have learned how to do some ornamental artistry and needlework at school along with reading , committal to writing , and other “ accomplishment ” like words and piano .
sampler were n’t intended as penalty , though it ’s hard to visualise a 21st - century kid sit down through a prospicient moral on the atomic number 49 and outs of fine needlework . Instead , they were a chance for girls to acquaint themselves with a mixed bag of skills and develop the focus and discipline they ’d need to do the nearly endless sewing that was the lot of the era ’s women in an age before sewing machines . Even if a daughter grew up plenteous , she would still be expected to create fine embroidery or pitch in on charity sewing projects [ PDF ] .
Mourning samplers became popular in the United States after the dying of George Washington , which launcheda madden for deplorable sewing projectswith passel of mourning symbolism .
This sampler is currently house in the reposition facility of the Cooper Hewitt , Smithsonian Design Museum in New York . require to see more ? Here arethe other mourning samplersin the Cooper Hewitt collection — and you could also view a selection ofthe dizzying array of decease - relate craftsproduced by nineteenth - century girls .
