Samplers as landscapes: a New York exhibition of girls' needlework from the 18th and 19th centuries
On 9 October 2026 the American Folk Art Museum in New York opens "Locating Girlhood: Place and Identity in Early American 'Schoolgirl' Art". It runs until 28 February 2027 (exhibition page, museum announcement).
What the exhibition is about
The museum shows work by girls and young women from the 18th and 19th centuries: samplers, needlework pictures and watercolours. The common theme is place: landscapes, gardens, townscapes, maps. The exhibition argues that these pieces are landscape art too, made by girls long before the recognised landscape painters of the era. It's timed to the United States' 250th anniversary and looks not only at the makers' skill but also at the ideas of the time they grew up in.
What a sampler is
A sampler is a stitched sample. At first it was a stitcher's notebook: patterns and stitches gathered on one cloth so they wouldn't be forgotten. Later it became a school exercise: girls stitched the alphabet, numbers, borders, their name and the date, sometimes a house, trees or a map. Many of these pieces are worked in cross stitch, which makes them close relatives of today's charted stitching.
How to stitch your own sampler
- Start with an alphabet. A simple one- or two-strand letter set is the classic base of a sampler and good practice for even crosses.
- Add a border. A repeating edge pattern teaches you to count: a mistake in one repeat shows at once.
- Your own place. In the spirit of the exhibition, a sampler can tell about a place: your house, your street, the tree outside the window. Draw it on graph paper and you have your own chart.
- Name and date. As on old samplers, stitch your name and the year: years later it's the most precious part.
- Fabric. Old samplers were worked on linen. Today evenweave or Aida will do — see "Fabric and count" for how to choose.
If you'd like to stitch a ready-made historical piece, have a look at "Museum paintings you can stitch for free".
About the author
This article was written by the Crossette team. We're building Crossette, a cross stitch tracker for iPhone and iPad: you mark stitches on the chart — from full crosses to backstitch, beads and French knots — and see how much is stitched. It's in development; to join the beta, email [email protected].