Artist/Maker Harriot Ward (1794-1875)

Sampler

1799

Place madeNew York, United States, North America

Linen, silk

Framed: 20 in. × 20 1/2 in. (50.8 × 52.1 cm)

Gift of Pamela Daly Vose Estate

2003.85.1

Harriot Ward (1794-1875) was the eldest of Jonathan and Sarah Brown Ward's thirteen children. Born in the rural village of Eastchester, today a neighborhood in the northeastern Bronx, Harriot and her sister Clarissa (2003.85.2) probably worked their samplers at a girls' school in nearby New Rochelle or Manhattan. Harriot never married, but put her sewing skills to use working as a dressmaker in Manhattan in the 1860s.

DescriptionRectangular linen sampler worked in various colors of silk floss; eight lines of prose worked in cross stitch; one line with name worked in Queen's stitch; basket of flowers and tree motifs below; deep arcaded border with birds and floral motifs.

Markingsstitched: "Harriot Ward is my name New York is my Station Heaven I hope my Dwelling Place and Christ is my Salvation when I am dead and in my Grave and all my bones are rotten when this you see remember me that i am not forgotten" stitched: "Harriot Ward was born Jan 2nd 1794 / Work'd this in 1799"

ClassificationsTEXTILES