Created By: Rebekah Sharp
Artifact Type: Sampler
Artifact Date: 1790
Origin/Region: United States
Material/Medium: Silk thread on linen ground
Museum Database Number: OBA 1933.002.0003
Artifact Condition: Good
Artifact Location: Old Barracks Association Collection
Ownership History: Gift of General Mercer Chapter, National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution
A mirror-image sampler with a vareity of motifs, including birds, animals, flowers, and two verses on virtue. The quote on virtue has been found on various other samplers created by young girls throughout the late 18th and early 19th century in both North America and Europe, though its original source is unknown.
The piece was originally lent to the Old Barracks via the General Washington Chapter of the DAR by Mrs. Eleanor Leigh Terradell Shepard (1882-1962), second wife of Elliott Fitch Shepard, Jr. (1876-1927), an American racing driver and grandson of William Henry Vanderbilt. No connection could be made through Mrs. Shepard’s family, so it is possible this sampler was collector’s piece, making it difficult to identify the exact Rebekah Sharp responsible for its creation.
Left
Virtue the greatest bounty of the mind, the noblest ornament of human kind
Right
Virtue our safeguard and our guiding star that stirs up reason when our senses err
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