Department: Social History

A pink border decorates the edges of this sampler and Harriet has embroidered her name across the top of her sampler. Originally, the maker would have embroidered her initials, however by the eighteenth century embroiderers such as Harriet had begun to decorate their samplers with their full names. As well as being a useful way of identifying who had made the sampler, this practice was also encouraged as a means of teaching young girls the alphabet. In the middle of the sampler Harriet has embroidered a basket of flowers. As in her other work, Harriet has used hearts, crosses, small birds and animals to decorate her sampler.