FRAMED NEEDLEWORK: "Francif Smith 1838" (from a private collection)

 

Over the years, I've had the opportunity to do several interesting classes in various types of needlework.  This particular piece is the spark that ignited three decades (so far) of interest in historic samplers.   My local house museum is the Ward Meade House (link to Shawnee County Parks and Rec, who run the site).  It is now called Old Prairie Town as the site has expanded on the mansion grounds to include several other buildings transported to the site or re-built there.  There are occasionally various classes in the public meeting rooms as well as tours, gift shop, etc.  They offered this reproduction sampler as a needlework class back in the early 1990s.   The woman teaching the class had charted this family piece for us.  As far as I know, it was never published or offered anywhere else. 

On Linen (approx 22 count) with DMC

Framed by The Frame Warehouse, Topeka KS 5/2023

I think it's pretty remarkable that this simple schoolgirl sampler was chosen to be included in the household goods of a family moving from Ohio to the raw Kansas frontier, then it was saved for over 150 years by the family.  And a descendant was a needleworker and interested enough to chart it for a one-time class.