Collections volunteer Jess Richardson explores the fascinating world of embroidery samplers in Tameside Museums' collection.

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Embroidery samplers were labours of love, a time consuming pastime that allowed the person sewing it to express themselves and create an item that they could use to demonstrate their home making skills, and often to indicate their class and social status. Their finished pieces were quite often signed and dated, and were often all that marked their creator’s existence, as well as being an indicator as to what was valuable and important to themselves personally and wider society, highlighted through the fashions and trends in what was being stitched.

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Embroidery samplers were initially used as a reference design for embroiderers to follow when recreating such pieces for themselves. The term ‘sampler’ finds its origins in that part of its history, as it comes from the Old French word essamplaire, meaning an example of something. Their purpose changed across the centuries, later developing in the 17th Century as a means for encouraging young girls to improve their sewing for their future household.

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As children who were able to attend school were taught useful life skills respective to their social class, the majority of young girls would have been taught needlepoint in some capacity, as poorer girls could use the skills to gain work as seamstresses and domestic servants. Wealthier young girls were taught how to sew the alphabet from an early age, to provide them the skills needed to mark personal items belonging to them and their future families.

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As with their purpose, the subjects being embroidered changed over time, with certain patterns being more fashionable than others. Flowers and figures were popular, and very common, amongst embroiderers, as were houses and garden scenes. The names and ages of the stitchers was sometimes sewn on, however when it was omitted it was often possible to ascertain the age of who had created it, using clues like the sewing of school buildings and family members.

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Specific local details, including things like windmills, were often depicted, as well as larger geographical subjects such as world maps, and even celestial images such as the known solar system. Moral and religious texts were often included in addition to the aforementioned items, declaring their faith and asking for blessings and protection for themselves and their loved ones.

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Death was also a common subject amongst the samplers. Widows would use the art form as a way to express their grief and cope with loss, often stitching the names of their husbands and small tributes, such as short poems or images, to commemorate their lives. When sewing their family trees,children would include the dates that their siblings were born, but would also include the dates of their deaths.

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The embroidered pieces were commonly stitched onto linen using coloured silks to create the intricate designs. However, the nature of the materials used lead to their decrease in popularity around the time of the World Wars, as the fabric and thread was needed elsewhere, and could not be spared for such things as samplers.

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Needlework remains a popular pastime today, especially in recent years with people finding new ways of undertaking creative projects at home. Tameside Museums holds a range of embroidery, including these samplers as well as embroidered postcards from the First World War, and embroidered regimental emblems of the Manchester Regiment.  

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