Records show that the Anasazi of the Southwest created cotton tapestries as far back as 700AD. Coronado introduced sheep to the Rio Grande area in 1540, which would eventually produce a ripple effect in an area practicing cotton weaving. Coronado plundered clothing from the natives and levied an annual yard of cloth from each family under his command. The Southwest has had a long weaving tradition, but there are many museum examples of embroidered quilts called colchas dating from 1750-1850. Worked without patterns, these bold designs were stitched in wool on a home-dyed, loosely woven wool ground called sadanilla. The missions of the Southwest provided shelter and protection and included weaving as part of the activities of daily living. So as a new society germinated on the eastern seaboard, the hands of land of sun went about their work as they spoke different languages in a climate and social structure making unique demands on what was produced and ideas about how it should be decorated.

As the English landed to establish colonies on the eastern coast, they brought their textiles with them and prayed for the shipment of more from home. The majority of textiles in the American colonies were imported up to the Stamp Act boycotts of the 1770's. However, the first cultivated cotton was planted in Jamestown in 1607, which would shape southern agricultural life for many decades. Basic sewing, and constant mending occupied the hands of the settlers. "Plain and fancy" describes two major types of stitching and it was the first of these that occupied the precious imported needles plied by the occupants of small, dark and basic mortar and dab houses. Few textiles survived this time when fire was a frequent hazard and males dominated the population figures, but there is no doubt, these times were difficult and only the hardy survived and all hands worked. And some hands recalled a fancywork tradition for which there was no time or need now.

English and Dutch samplers (samcloths, exampleraries, etc.) were part of the new settlers' heritage, and about 1653 Lora Standish, daughter of Barbara and Miles, worked a long and narrow sampler of floral bands with words. This first signed piece (assumed American) recalls the stitching prowess made possible by the European development of the steel needle. Shipped to the new world in oiled paper, to prevent rust, they were frequently listed in importers' (shippers') advertisements and dearly guarded by needleworkers, as hands that stitch can do no more than their equipment dictates.

Lora's sampler, stitched when she was a young woman, reflects a time when samplers were made as records of stitches and patterns to be rolled and kept with the sewing articles for reference in marking and decorating textiles.

In this day of crease-resistant, factory-produced material waiting at your retailers, it is impossible for us to fully comprehend the amount of time and concern textiles took up in a woman's life whether rich or poor. Also, a larger part of the family moneys was invested in the production of textiles for the household.

The lack of margins in this sampler hints at the frugality with which even the prosperous regarded their fabric. Gussets and piecing in colonial garments also reflect this.

As the Eighteenth Century dawns on the colonies, though still importing many textiles, there are people growing flax and producing linen, a favorite for colonists. Poor quality silk was produced in the South, with sericulture introduced at Jamestown, but later giving way to tobacco.

7he Lora Standish Sampler of about 1653 is the first signed piece that is assumed American. Photo courtesy of the Pilgrim Society of Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The sampler becomes the mode of needle expression in this century. You can never divorce a female's education from the training of her guardian or the guardian's reaction to it. As the seaboard settled and communities formed, the wealthy began looking for places to provide suitable training for their daughters. Dame schools sometime provided a very coarse education for youngsters and occasionally a simple marking sampler was worked. There are even extant samplers by boys done in these informal settings. These marking samplers allowed the student to learn to mark clothing and to instruct servants to do so. This was necessary for retrieving items from community washing situations, identifying the owner in a large household, rotating linens in storage, and legacy purposes.

It is interesting to note that the Shakers who settled in New York a few years before the American Revolution have very little history of samplers, but did mark their clothing with cross stitched letters.

The Stamp Act boycotts brought about the "homespun period" in America where things like lindseywoolsey were produced until the Civil War. However, even the American Revolution hardly interrupted the imports from the Orient and a twisted silk, usually dyed here, was the thread of choice for sampler work. Linen was still the favorite ground (usually imported) with bleached being preferred as it browned less under acidic framing conditions as the sampler went from the work basket to the wall.

Samplers were the showcase for various types of needlework from counted work to crewel embroidery, and with the next installment we will look at places where needlework was learned by the hands of young America.