Sampler
Maker
Mary D. Anderson
Period1833
MediumPlied silk thread and flat silk thread on linen
DimensionsSight: 22.5 × 25.5 in. (57.2 × 64.8 cm)
SignedThe sampler is signed "Mary D. Andersons / Work 1833."
ClassificationsNeedlework
Credit LineGift of Mrs. Julia Hartshorne Trask, 1946
Object number2084.48
DescriptionA large square sampler worked on fine gauze-like natural linen in both plied and flat silk thread in dark blue-green, medium green, medium blue, rich sky blue, light brown, pale pink, red, and oyster white. Several types of stitches are used throughout, including cross, queen, tent, and surface satin. The sampler's many motifs are arranged around a central verse, brief family register, and signature inscription, which reads "Show me what I have to do / Every hour my strength renew / Let me live a life of faith / Let me die Thy people's death. / My parents names / Wesley and Maria Anderson / Mary D. Andersons / Work 1833." A small strawberry vine band separates the verse and inscriptions. Immediately above the verse lines are worked two mirror image floral baskets. Below the inscription lines curves a floral vine, with a large sky blue ribbon bow at the center. Immediately below the blue bow is worked a large rose bush, flanked on either side by smaller rosebud sprays and a pair of what appear to be mourning doves. Flanking the central verse and inscription are motifs including a carnation plant, a stylized carnation and buds in a shallow basket, and an angular pine tree. Along the bottom of the sampler is worked, in glossy flat silk thread, a stretch of grassy lawn. In the center, a tidy weeping willow stands, flanked on the left by a large sprig of white clover and an unidentified fruit or floral spray, while on the right is worked a large strawberry plant and a grapevine winding up a trellis pole. An ornate and elegant wide stylized floral vine borders the sampler along the left, top, and right sides.Curatorial RemarksFor her verse, Mary Drocildoa Anderson chose a portion of a hymn written by John Newton (1725 - 1807), better known for his enduring "Amazing Grace." This sampler, so beautifully worked in both plied and flat silk thread, reveals Mary Anderson's impressive talent with her needle. Anderson was thirteen when she completed her sampler, clearly under the direction of a talented needlework instructress. It is not known who might have been Mary's teacher, but it was certainly a woman with a high degree of artistic skill, allowing her to work with her student to combine so many disparate elements into such a balanced composition. Mary included the names of both her parents. Her father, Wesley Anderson, died in 1825 at the age of thirty-five, when Mary was five years old, eight years before she worked her sampler.NotesMary Drocildoa Anderson was born on 17 October 1820, a daughter of Wesley Anderson (1790 - 1825) and Maria Davis (1790 - 1871) of Malvern, Chester County, Pennsylvania. In 1848 she married William B. Shupe (1819 - 1872), a merchant at Lower Providence, Montgomery County. They became the parents of four sons and a daughter. Mary died on 3 March 1861 at the age of forty. She was interred in the St. James Perkiomen Episcopal Church cemetery in Evansburg (now Collegeville).
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