There is one other image of this object. This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions), and as such we offer a high-resolution image of it. See our image rights statement.

 

Object Timeline

1941

  • We acquired this object.

2010

2015

2025

  • You found it!

Sampler (USA)

This is a Sampler. It was embroidered by Elizabeth Ann Herpin Andrew. It is dated 1755 and we acquired it in 1941. Its medium is silk embroidery on linen foundation and its technique is embroidered in cross stitch on plain weave foundation. It is a part of the Textiles department.

Elizabeth Ann Harpin Andrew was born on September 26, 1749, and stitched this sampler at the age of six. She ornamented her work with highly stylized floral motifs, framed with four-leaf clovers in a chain-link border. Elizabeth recorded the sampler's completion date as October 17, 1755, and carefully calculated her age on that date as six years and ten days. Finishing her inscription may have taken slightly more time than she anticipated, however, since her actual age on that date would have been six years and twenty-one days.

Elizabeth was born in Milford, Connecticut. She was the daughter of Samuel Andrew (1721-1800) and Elizabeth Harpin (1728-1760), and had at least one sibling, a younger sister named Eunice Hall (born 1751). Elizabeth married Ezra Botsford (born 1743) in 1767. The couple had eleven children: Samuel Andrew (1767-1827), Ezra (1769-1770), Elizabeth Ann (April 1771-August 1771), Elizabeth Ann (1772-1834), Ezra (1773-1856), Timothy (1775-1796), John Harpin (1780-1828), Eunice (1783-1843), Sarah (1785-1825), Martha (born 1788), Isaac (born 1790), and Esther (1792-1828).

Elizabeth's husband had died by 1805, and in December of that year there was a notice in the Connecticut Herald declaring his estate to be insolvent. Elizabeth died in Bridgewater, Connecticut, in 1817 at the age of sixty-seven.

This object was bequest of Mrs. Henry E. Coe. It is credited Bequest of Mrs. Henry E. Coe.

Its dimensions are

H x W: 40 x 27 cm (15 3/4 x 10 5/8 in.)

It is inscribed

Elizabeth Ann Herrin Andrews 6 years 10 days October the 17th Anno Domini 1755

Cite this object as

Sampler (USA); Embroidered by Elizabeth Ann Herpin Andrew (American, 1749 - 1817); silk embroidery on linen foundation; H x W: 40 x 27 cm (15 3/4 x 10 5/8 in.); Bequest of Mrs. Henry E. Coe; 1941-69-44

This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18564307/ |title=Sampler (USA) |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=13 March 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>