Lydia’s Sampler
June 14, 1837
Daughter Lydia has completed her sampler. She has spent many hours during these last six months working on her
This reproduction sampler was based on historic examples in the Monadnock Center’s collection and stitched by Marcia Burke.
piece. It certainly kept her busy sitting by the fire or by candlelight during the long winter months. When I was growing up, my mother taught my sisters and me how to embroider a sampler. Ours were very simple. We simply made marking samplers that only included cross stitched alphabets and numbers. But with help from her school teacher, Lydia also learned how to add images to the bottom of the cloth and a nice border.
Samplers are such a practical way for young girls to learn the alphabet and numbers while also practicing their much needed sewing skills. I want to make sure all my girls are prepared to handle the sewing, mending, and marking of their linens that will be required of them when they have homes of their own.
I’m so proud of Lydia’s work and plan to hang it on our parlor wall. It won’t be too many more years before suitors will come visiting our home. When they see Lydia’s sampler, they’ll see she’s educated and has some of the skills needed to run a home and raise a family.
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| Nancy Prescott’s Diary is a fictionalized account of life in the Phoenix Mill House in 1837 based on primary source research into the lives of Nancy and Samuel Prescott. The Prescott family lived in the mill house when Samuel was an overseer at the Phoenix Mill in the 1830s. |
Published June 2020
