Minneapolis Institute of Art

Sampler

Nancy Sibley

Date

1808

Medium

Silk thread, metal-wrapped thread, painted linen, and painted paper on linen plain weave, needlework

Department

Arts of the Americas

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

From the colonial period to the mid nineteenth-century, sampler making formed a major component of polite education for young girls. Needlework samplers demonstrated the artistic achievements of students, chief among them being a range of delicate stitch techniques. This sampler records the skills of its ten-year-old maker in handling a dozen embroidery stitches, her abilities working with metallic thread (a challenging medium for the novice), as well as her competence in painting on cloth and applied paper. United States, Americas

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