Seeking Williston’s samplers

The Vermont Sampler Initiative looks back at girls’ education through embroidery

BY STACEY MCKENNA Special to the Observer

Starting back in the 1600s and continuing through the early 20th century, the education of young women and girls in New England involved needlework projects — called samplers — that helped them refine their sewing skills. Often this needlework depicted their family life, the community in which they lived and important events.

Most formal education during this time was aimed at boys and young men, and precious little information on what society’s young females were taught in more informal settings exists. Samplers offer insight into what young girls were taught as being important as they were growing up. However, samplers made by Vermont girls are very rare, and samplers from Williston’s early days are almost nonexistent.

The Vermont Sampler Initiative (www. samplerarchive.org) seeks to rectify this. Through a grant from the Vermont Humanities Council, the Vermont Sampler Initiative is offering four Sampler ID days, which will be a bit like the PBS television show “Antiques Roadshow” — although not televised. Any Vermonter with a sampler can participate.

Curators of the event will talk with you about your sampler, and perhaps teach you something you may not have known about it. In return, you will receive a professional photograph of your sampler, and your sampler will be included in the United States Sampler Archive. Moreover, you will be contributing to the history of Vermont’s daughters from times long ago.

On April 21 from 12-4 p.m. and April 22 from 10 a.m-4 p.m. at the Shelburne Museum, you can have your sampler investigated by the curators of the project. Additional times are available from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on May 12-13 at the Vermont History Museum in Barre. To make an appointment, email samplersvt@gmail.com.

Please let the Williston Historical Society know if you have a sampler. We’d love to feature it in an upcoming column. Email us at willistonhistoricalsociety@ gmail.com.

Vermont Sampler Initiative

WHAT: Help curate your embroidery sampler

WHEN: 12-4 p.m. April 21; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. April 22

WHERE: Shelburne Museum

For more information, email: samplersvt@gmail.com