LITCHFIELD HISTORICAL SOCIETY EXHIBIT
April 26 through December 1, 2024
The exhibit "With Their Busy Needles: Samplers and the Girls Who Made Them" runs from April 27- December 1, 2024 at Litchfield Historical Society Museum LitchfieldHistorical Society.org
Alexandra Peters gave a talk, "Know My Name: How Schoolgirl Samplers Created a Remarkable History" at the Museum on May 5th, and you can view it on the EXHIBITS page.
Why Samplers Are So Amazing
“Well behaved women seldom make history” is the title of a book by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, who searched through the lives of ordinary people to find information about women. It’s a catchy phrase, right? It has been taken by many to mean that only women who resisted or challenged authority are worth remembering. If you weren’t rebelling, the modern view goes, you were a victim who accepted the patriarchy.
But what Ulrich meant is that the way we look at history has been through the eyes of the men who write history, to see who made noise, who got the attention of men. That is, well behaved women rarely got to enter the narrative of men’s history. For a woman to get the notice of men, to be valued for what she accomplished, she had to behave like a man. But what if she behaved like a woman, working in the home, the domestic center of all life before the Industrial Revolution? What if her needlework was vital to the economy but not something men did? Maybe to understand women in history, we need to use a different lens.
I found that lens in samplers.
Samplers, the needlework of schoolgirls, typically made between 1700 and 1840, have opened up wonderful entry for me into the lives of girls in the past. Until recently, these needleworks have rarely been acknowledged as documentation because they were created on linen and silk, not paper. Not to mention being made by children. But there may be as many as 50,000 samplers still in existence in the United States, and probably many more in England. Can you think of any other form of documentary substantiation that exists in such abundance?
As a collector (I have about 150 samplers now) I like to find different kinds of samplers that lead me to new understanding. I research each one, and it is always a thrill for me to discover the life and work of a girl. Then of course, once I know that girl, how can I not buy the sampler she made? Uncovering the history of each girl through her needlework is like being at an archaeological site, where I don’t know what I will be uncovering, and bit by bit a story comes to light.
I see the narratives of these girls as being about centered, powerful and empathetic people. They were creative, visionary, and confident. Girls were highly valued by their families, who were delighted by the increasing literacy and competence of their daughter and eager to show off their skills. Parents readily invested in the cost of their daughters’ tuition, (which was often higher than that for boys because of the costs of materials needed for decorative sewing, and framing) and then hung the work of these girls on their walls. Unlike most textiles, samplers weren’t used for sleeping or wearing, or wiping bottoms or noses, so they have survived, remaining on the walls often for generations. There was no comparable recognition of their sons.
I am a little awed, and very grateful, to have the opportunity to exhibit 27 of my samplers (3 in the Western Reserve exhibit) at the Litchfield Historical Society, which has such an extraordinary collection, and a long and rich history of valuing the work of women.
And I am delighted to share what I know about my samplers with you.
Alexandra Lally Peters
April 2024