Sampler
Maker
Eleanor Lyell Taylor
Period1821
MediumCotton and silk thread on linen ground
DimensionsSight: 14.5 × 11.13 in. (36.8 × 28.3 cm)
SignedThe sampler includes the signature "Eleanor L. Taylor's / Work June the 1st / Aged 10 Years 1821."
ClassificationsNeedlework
Credit LineGift of Mrs. Julia Hartshorne Trask, 1946
Object number2084.22
DescriptionThis sampler, divided into thirds, features two upper case alphabets, one in light blue, the second in green, in the top third section. In the middle section, worked in blue, is the verse "Jesus direct a tender youthful mind / The path of happiness to find / As her fingers on the canvas move / Engage her heart to seek thy love." The lower third of the sampler includes the inscription, worked in green, reading "Eleanor L. Taylor's / Work June the 1st / Aged 10 Years 1821." A variety of narrow floral and foliate decorative borders divide each section. A narrow inner border of white and yellow stripes surrounds the central portion, while a zig zag vine with stylized stepped white and ochre yellow flowers outlined in green forms the outer border.Curatorial RemarksWhen a survey of American samplers was conducted in 1920 by the Massachusetts Society of the Colonial Dames of America, New Jersey yielded the second largest number of examples after Massachusetts. Schoolmistresses are documented as teaching needlework and other suitable subjects to young ladies in day academies or boarding schools in Mount Holly, Trenton, Woodbury, Pennington, Cream Ridge, and several locations in Burlington County. These centers for needlework instruction have been identified either by the appearance of a teacher's or school's name stitched into a sampler or by advertisements in newspapers of the time. The quality and design of Hannah Dorset Taylor's sampler suggests that she studied under a professional teacher, most likely in a local school which offered sewing and needlework as part of the curriculum. The Middletown Academy, near the Taylor family home, was open as early as 1785. Eleanor's second cousin, Edward Taylor, attended the Academy in 1812. It is unknown whether the Academy offered a program for girls; if it did, then it would be a likely place for Eleanor to have learned the skills to produce such a well-executed sampler. Eleanor's older sister, Hannah Dorset Taylor, completed a large sampler in 1811 at the age of sixteen. She, too, judging from the highly finished and beautifully worked needlework piece, received excellent instruction and may well have attended the Middletown Academy before her sister. The samplers make for fascinating comparison: sixteen-year-old Hannah's sampler shows the high level of her skills as a needlewoman. Little sister Eleanor's sampler, while not at the level of Hannah's sampler, is certainly impressive for a ten year old, and also indicates the talents of the girls' unknown instructors, able to provide designs suitable to their students' ages and skill levels.NotesEleanor Lyell Taylor was born in 1810, the ninth of thirteen children of Joseph Taylor (1771 - 1836) and Martha Dorset (1775 - 1850), who married in 1797. Eleanor was named after her paternal great-aunt Eleanor Taylor Lyell (1737 - 1794) who had married Fenwick Lyell (1734 - ?), a ship's captain who was lost at sea. Eleanor and her siblings grew up in the upper part of the village of Middletown, first at a house at the foot of Ruckman's Hill on what is now Red Hill Road. Then during the same year his eleventh child was born in 1814, Joseph built a larger home for his growing family on the south side of the same road. Joseph was a tanner and currier by trade and also served as Justice of the Peace. Through his side, Eleanor was a direct descendant of John (1716 - 1798) and Edward Taylor (1712 - 1783) of nearby Marlpit Hall. Eleanor never married, living all her life in Middletown with her brother Samuel (1809 - 1880), and her unmarried youngest sister Huldah (1816 - 1898). Eleanor was ten years old at the time she completed her sampler. The Association also owns a masterful needlework sampler that her older sister, Hannah Dorset Taylor (1797 - 1876), completed in 1811 when she was sixteen. See accession number 1994.10. A photograph of the house in which Eleanor L. Taylor grew up was taken about 1890 by Edward Taylor (1848 - 1911). At the time it was occupied by her brother John Taylor.
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