Further Sampler Shows

As well as Simply Samplers, a second exhibition of embroidered samplers was showing in Scotland this year, at the Museum of Childhood in Edinburgh between 9 December 2006 and 17 June 2007 - see below for details.

“Love is Sunshine, Love One Another”
School Samplers of the 19^th Century at the Museum of Childhood, Edinburgh

(42 High Street, Royal Mile, Edinburgh, EH1 1TG, t: 0131 529 4142)

Crafting and needlework has enjoyed a huge resurgence in popularity in recent years, from knitting to cross-stitch and dress-making to crochet. A new exhibition at the Museum of Childhood on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile looks back to a time when these were essential skills expected of every woman. This exhibition focuses on the sewing skills acquired by most girls and women in an age before mass-produced clothes were widely available.

Around 30 samplers from the Museum of Childhood’s own collection are included in the exhibition. Examples of work by local, Edinburgh schoolgirls illustrates the importance placed on needlework in girls’ education in the 19^th Century. Schools such as Torphichen Street, Heriot’s, Edinburgh Ladies’ College, Stockbridge Public School and John Watson’s Institution are all represented

The word ‘sampler’ comes from the French, ‘essamplaire’ which means a model or pattern to copy. The earliest samplers were pieces of fabric containing a variety of stitches, new ones being added as they were learned.

Needlework made up a large proportion of the curriculum for girls in the 19^th century. Many schools made money selling the needlework that girls produced. In 1834 the youngest girls in Edinburgh’s Merchant Maiden Hospital sewed for up to five hours a day. Some have argued that sewing was used almost as a sedative to keep girls docile and quiet!