A tan linen sampler with cross, satin, straight, split, outline, back, and stem stitches worked in colored silk thread by Josephine Evans, a student at a Quaker school in Burlington County, New Jersey. The sampler includes a six-line religious verse, below which appears two baskets of fruit on either side of a stylized Quaker schoolhouse with five windows, which is set in a pastoral landscape featuring two trees, a lawn with sheep, and a woman, four children, a dog, and a deer. The woman, a teacher, is ringing a bell to call the four children into the school; one child is African American and carries a basket on his head. The sampler is signed and dated at the lower third, "Josephine Evans aged [threads missing] years. April 11th 1839," and is bordered by a band of daisies and tulips connected by a green vine.
Description:
Embroidered verse in English. and Purchased from Priscilla Juvelis Inc. on the Jockey Hollow Fund, 2001.
Subject (Geographic):
Burlington County (N.J.)--Social life and customs--19th century
Subject (Name):
Evans, Josephine,--active 1839
Subject (Topic):
African Americans--New Jersey--Burlington County and Quaker girls--New Jersey--Burlington County