Welcome to the Sampler Archive
The Sampler Archive database has been designed to share detailed information and high-resolution images of American girlhood samplers and pictorial embroideries from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.
From the Director, Lynne Anderson
Sampler Search
Lydia W. Phinney, 1835 New Salem, Massachusetts
Submitted by Patricia Wilson Nguyen
The Sampler Archive Project is pleased to announce a new initiative, beginning August 1, 2024. Until now the Sampler Archive Project has solicited American made samplers for its online database in one of three ways: (1) direct collaboration with museums, historical societies, dealers, and auction houses; (2) conducting state or county-wide sampler initiatives; and (3) documenting the samplers selected for regional and national sampler exhibitions. All three of these approaches have been wonderfully successful in helping us to locate, photograph, and document thousands of American schoolgirl samplers for the Sampler Archive's online searchable database. And all three approaches will continue for years to come. On August 1 we added a fourth approach - soliciting information about samplers directly from private owners and collectors.
Toward this end, we have developed the "Sampler Search Submission" form - an easy first step toward letting the Sampler Archive Project know about samplers in private hands. The form is short and asks for the following information: (1) your name and contact information; (2) name of sampler owner; (3) location of the sampler (town and state); (4) number of samplers (if more than one); and (5) brief description (phrase or sentence) for each sampler.
Each sampler submitted will be registered with the Sampler Archive Project for possible inclusion in its online database of American samplers and related schoolgirl embroideries. The person submitting the sampler will be contacted for more information and an image. If accepted for the Sampler Archive, the sampler will be professionally documented and researched prior to being publicly accessible online. The two main criteria for being included in the Sampler Archive are location made (any geographic location now part of the United States) and stitched by a girl or young woman as part of her education, either at home or school, prior to 1900.
Click HERE to access the online Sampler Search Submission form.
There are many ways you can support this exciting initiative! To learn how, please go HERE or click Donate.
Browse the Sampler Archive
Accessing the Sampler Archive database
You may access the Sampler Archive database in two major ways. To browse, use the top menu to go to the Browse page and select any of the filters listed (e.g. contributor, decade, place made, etc.). Your selection will return all the objects in the database within that category. You can also browse by selecting any of these same filters from the Home Page.
If you have a more specific idea of what you are looking for, then go to the Search page. Here you may enter multiple search criteria at the same time (e.g., "name, decade, AND state made" or "materials, object type, AND year). The database will return search results matching all the search terms you entered.
Coming soon
The Sampler Archive database will continue to grow over the next months and several years, with additional information and images from sampler collections across the United States, both public and private. Coming soon will be results from the Delaware Statewide Sampler Initiative (2013-2016) - information and images for more than 300 samplers and pictorial embroideries from public and private collections in the state of Delaware. This initiative was funded by grants from the Delaware Humanities Forum and the Coby Foundation.
