I have some exciting news in regards to my September 19th posting about my Quaker sampler stitched by a girl named Phebe, and I wanted to share it with you all this morning.
Later in the afternoon on the 19th I received an email that said, please contact me about your Phebe Coffin/Griffin 1806 sampler. I have information that might be helpful, too much to write...
OMG, too much to write!
Excited doesn't even begin to describe how I felt!
I immediately responded via return email to arrange a phone conversation, and minutes later I was chatting with the person on the other end of the email, who had a wealth of information,
Kathy Moyer of Dutchess County, NY.
Such a fun conversation, to converse with someone who shares the same passion about school girl samplers!
A big "THANK YOU" to
Barbara Hutson of
Queenstown Sampler Designs
A big "THANK YOU" to
Barbara Hutson of
Queenstown Sampler Designs
for directing Kathy to that day's blog posting!
I learned a little bit more about the Phebe Sampler from Kathy (all photos are snippits of the sampler, which resides in my personal collection)...
Kathy is writing a book, Nine Partners Boarding School and Its Samplers. Located in Dutchess County, NY, the school was opened in 1796 by New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) for both boys and girls who were from member families. Education for both genders, while practiced by Quakers, was novel in society at that time. In its day, the school was well known and widely acclaimed throughout the country. It influenced social and economic issues as well as sampler making.
According to Kathy, my sampler is the same format as one made at the school in 1803. The two share around 20 common elements. It is possible that Phebe learned sampler making from someone who attended or taught at the school. Kathy has been making presentations locally on “Dutchess County Samplers of the 19th Century” in which she discusses some samplers from Nine Partners school and many samplers with a Quaker influence, including some which are of the same format as those from Nine Partners. Her next lecture is in November.
She also mentioned that unfortunately, since there are no extant school rosters from decades of the school, including 1806, there is no way to know if Phebe attended. Both Coffins and Griffins attended from various locations.
In 1806, sisters Lucretia & Eliza Coffin made the long journey from Nantucket, MA, to Nine Partners. Lucretia married a young man she met at the school, James Mott, and went on to become the most well known scholar of the school as a result of her activism with abolition and women’s rights. Upon her death, she was widely acknowledged by her contemporaries as the greatest American woman of the 19th century.
If anyone knows of any samplers from Nine Partners Boarding School or has information pertaining to the school, she would appreciate it if you contact me and I will forward it to her. She has previously placed ads in SANQ and antiques publications and has been in touch with the Sampler Consortium all of which yielded a few samplers.
(I love Phebe's interpretation of this fat little squirrel...looks like a couple that I know, that can be seen hanging from my bird feeders!)
As a result of her research, she has discovered around fifty samplers attributable to the school (but lacks photos of some of them). For years she has been tracking over one hundred Quaker families and thus will be able to include in the book genealogical and familial information on many sampler makers.
I am hoping this posting will put some feelers out there. I know a lot of sampler lovers come here to visit :) and you just never know when someone may know something, or has seen something that could be helpful. Kathy mentioned that many of the samplers that came out of the Nine Partners School had Nine Partners stitched on the sampler....something to keep an eye out for! While the Phebe sampler doesn't have the words, Nine Partners stitched on it, Kathy mentioned perhaps Phebe was taught by her mother or aunt, whom may have attended the school themselves.
If only these samplers could speak...
With thy Needle & Thread,
Brenda
Brenda
