Needlework picture, 1810-1812 / Charlotte Dulton / Moravian Female Seminary / Bethlehem, Pennsylvania / Silk, silk chenille, spangles, foil, ink and watercolor on silk. In 1810, when she was thirteen, Charlotte Dulton journeyed from Norfolk, Virginia to attend the Moravian Female Seminary in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She was still at the school in 1812 when her enrollment records reveal purchases of various needlework materials. An entry dated June 30, 1812 notes charges for "Sattin and Drawing a Frame Piece/Work/Silk, Gold Thread and Spangles/Instructions in Fine Needlework for Charlotte." She married Alexander Taylor in Norfolk in 1814. (Friends of the Museum Purchase)

Needlework picture, 1810-1812

Needlework picture, 1815-1817 / Mary Ann Stiles / Philadelphia or Morristown, New Jersey / Silk, silk chenille, watercolor and ink on silk. Mary Ann Stiles stitched this exceptional silk embroidery in memory of her father John Stiles who died in 1815. Unlike many silk memorials worked in the early-nineteenth century, there are no grieving mourners. The little gravestones marked “CS” and “RS” are in remembrance of her brothers, one-year-old Charles Stiles and Robert Stiles who died four days after birth. Mary Ann married John Este Keen and was the mother of two children. (Gift of Elizabeth Campion Rives, great-great-great granddaughter of Mary Ann Stiles)

Needlework picture, 1815-1817

The Long-Established East

Sampler, 1832 / Mary Statzell / Philadelphia / Silk on linen. Simple initials on this charming sampler led to many discoveries, first and foremost her parents’ names: George Henry Statzell and Susanna K. Statzell. Mary omitted her lovely middle name, Magdalena. Mary Magdalena married Ellwood Clifton in 1848. Two years later the 1850 Philadelphia census reveals she worked in "a trimming store," but by 1870 the census lists her as keeping house. In addition to their children, the couple also cared for one or both grandmothers from 1850-1870. (Gift of Miss Ethel King, granddaughter of Mary Statzell)

Sampler, 1832

The Long-Established East

Sampler, 1818 / Nancy Clark / Washington County, Pennsylvania / Silk on linen. The maker may be Mary Ann “Nancy” Clark who was born in Washington County in 1811 and married Joseph Flowers in 1834. Nancy and Joseph Flowers emigrated with a large contingent from Pennsylvania to Ohio where Nancy died in 1863. Nancy stitched a house typical of the sturdy brick homes of southern Pennsylvania. The triple strawberry border is more common on Scottish samplers. Perhaps her teacher was of Scottish descent. (Gift of Helen M. Wilkerson, a gift from the Clark family to the donor’s mother)

Sampler, 1818

The Long-Established East

Sampler, 1824-1830 / Amy Eliza Herbert / Possibly Somerset County, New Jersey / Silk on linen. The Herbert sampler is one of several boasting a similar architectural feature; a large house with a checkered facade and adjoining smaller dependencies. The barely discernable initials “M B” are probably those of Mary Bellamy, a teacher in Somerset County, New Jersey. Amy Eliza married Abraham Post and by 1850 was living with her husband and 7 children in Alexander, New York. She apparently died in the 1850s; both the 1860 and 1870 census list a Catharine Post as Abraham’s wife. (Bequest of Mary Amy Allen, granddaughter of Amy Eliza Herbert)

Sampler, 1824-1830

The Long-Established East

Sampler, about 1825 / Elizabeth Osborn / Monmouth County, New Jersey / Silk on linen. In this unusual and whimsical sampler, Elizabeth Osborn stitched a house with two front doors. This architectural feature was apparently popular in southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey from mid-to-late 19th century. Elizabeth was born in Monmouth, New Jersey in 1813 and married Dr. John Morford. After his death in 1839, she married Dr. Robert Laird. Elizabeth died in 1884. (Gift of Lucille A. Hunter)

Sampler, about 1825

The Long-Established East

Sampler, 1819 / Elizabeth Ann Ivins / New Jersey / Silk on linen. This is the third of the DAR Museum’s New Jersey architectural samplers featured in the exhibition. This traditional house with hipped roof and twin chimneys is stitched to show both open and shuttered windows, a narrow door with a fanlight and large door knocker, and tiny basement windows. The name Ivins is another version of Evans, and can be found in several counties in New Jersey. In the 1860 census we find an Elizabeth Ivins age 55 at home in Burlington County, New Jersey. Can this be our Elizabeth? (Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ellzey)

Sampler, 1819

The Long-Established East

Sampler, 1813 / Julia Ann Crowley / Washington City / Silk and chenille on linen/wool. Betsy Garrett’s publication of the Crowley sampler ("The Magazine Antiques," April 1975) and her research on similar Washington samplers undoubtedly was the impetus for the increased interest in the city’s needlework. Julia Ann worked two known samplers; the other stitched three years earlier and inscribed, "Washington Navy Yard." In 1820 Julia Ann married Thomas Fitten, a ship carpenter, "an Englishman" according to a granddaughter. The granddaughter further notes, "she died when about 33 years of age in Norfolk,Va and left several children." (Gift of Mrs. W. W. Brothers)

Sampler, 1813

The Long-Established East

Sampler, 1829 / Artridge Priscilla Jackson / Georgetown, D.C. / Silk on linen. This sampler is similar to one worked by Mary Ann Scott attributed to the Lydia English Female Seminary, one of the best known Georgetown boarding schools for girls. Artridge Jackson was born June 14, 1820 at a time when the city was still recovering from the War of 1812. She married Cyrus Waters in 1844. In 1880 she was a widow living in Georgetown with her three adult children: Annie, a music teacher; Joseph, a lawyer; and Henry, a store clerk. (Friends of the Museum Purchase)

Sampler, 1829

The Long-Established East

Sampler, 1845 / Sarah Ann Wirshing / Probably Pennsylvania / Silk and cotton on linen. In 1845 Sarah Ann Wirshing may have made her sampler in Pennsylvania, but she would become “A Virginian by choice,” eight years later. In 1853 she married Ambrose Anderson Hutcheson in Richmond, Virginia. She was the mother of seven children, three of them born during the Civil War years when Richmond was in the eye of the storm. She lived into the twentieth century and appeared in the 1920 census as head of the household with two unmarried daughters in the home. (Gift of Kim Muller-Thym in memory of her mother, Grace Muller-Thym)

Sampler, 1845

The Long-Established East

Sampler, 1836 / Lucy Ann Overton Minor / Probably Spotsylvania County, Virginia / Silk on linen. Lucy Ann Overton Minor has stitched only the initials for her given name to join a host of family members remembered in the preceding rows above. The daughter of Thomas Minor and Dorothea Johnston, she was born on Christmas Day, 1815 making her 21 years of age when she made her sampler. Three years later she married Robert Morrison Childress of Albemarle County, Virginia. Lucy Ann died February 12, 1856 at Esmont, Albemarle County. (Gift of Kim Muller-Thym in memory of her mother Grace Muller-Thym)

Sampler, 183

The Long-Established East

Sampler, 1835 / Catharine Ann Cowgill / Frederick County, Virginia and/or Norristown, Pennsylvania / Silk on linen. Catharine Ann Cowgill was born in 1824 in Frederick County, Virginia where her family settled in 1818. The Cowgills belonged to the Hopewell Meeting, six miles north of Winchester, Virginia. It is unclear whether she completed her loosely constructed sampler there or in Pennsylvania where the family returned to join the Radnor Monthly Meeting after her father’s death in 1834. She married Isaac Stokes in 1850 and was the mother of three children. She died in 1890. Her haunting verse comes from a poem in "Introduction to the English Reader: or, A Selection of Pieces in prose and poetry..."(Lindley Murray, 1811.) (Friends of the Museum Purchase)

Sampler, 1835

The Long-Established East

Needlework picture, 1822 / Mary Ann Craft / Baltimore, Maryland / Silk on linen. Over forty years have passed since the DAR Museum purchased this needlework depiction of St. Patrick’s Church in Baltimore. Ten-year-old Mary Ann Craft’s work is an important picture of lost church architecture. She has not omitted the fencing so often found on Baltimore samplers. The ornate iron gate speaks to the talented craftsmanship found in the city. To date, we have not confirmed she is the daughter of a Jacob Craft, a merchant in the city. (Friends of the Museum Purchase)

Needlework picture, 1822

The Long-Established East

Sampler, 1818 / Elizabeth Cronise / Frederick County, Maryland / Silk and cotton on linen. Elizabeth Cronise was born in Frederick County in western Maryland, the daughter of Catharine Fundenburg and John Jacob Cronise. At eleven she stitched an earlier version of her family name on her marking sampler. In 1825 Elizabeth married John Henry Detrick, and the young couple made their home in Frederick County. Elizabeth was only 37 when she died in 1844. Four years later her husband died, but the Detrick name remains prominent in Maryland. The U.S. Army medical installation, Fort Detrick, is named for Elizabeth's great-grandson, Dr. Frederick Louis Detrick, who served in World War I as an Army phsyician. (Friends of the Museum Purchase)

The Long-Established East

Portrait, about 1825 / "Elizabeth Cronise Detrick" / Frederick, Maryland / Unidentified artist / Etched on reverse, "MILLER PHIL" / Oil on wood panel. This charming profile portrait of Elizabeth Cronise Detrick was probably painted at the time of her marriage. (Friends of the Museum Purchase)

Portrait, about 1825

The Long-Established East

Sampler, 1843 / Susan Shuford / Lincolnton, North Carolina / Silk on linen. The initials "L. N. C." on this precise but sprightly sampler proclaim the maker’s hometown. Susan Shuford was the daughter of Elizabeth Butts and Thomas Rhyne Shuford of Lincolnton, North Carolina. The Shufords were descendants of German immigrants who settled in North Carolina about 1755. In 1860 Susan appears in the census living at home in Lincolnton as the oldest of seven children. (Friends of the Museum purchase and gift of the North Carolina State Society in honor of Rolfe Teague, Curator General, NSDAR, 2001-2004)

The Long-Established East

Sampler, 1824 / Rachel Bell Pooser / Orangeburg, South Carolina / Silk on linen. The delicate stitchery and flowing design of this sampler worked by seventeen-year-old Rachel Bell Pooser has an almost ethereal effect. In 1830 Rachel Bell married John Jamison Boyd, a Methodist minister and for many years a circuit rider. Rev. Boyd was also an original trustee of the Columbia Female College. Of their six children, two sons served in the Confederate Army. One son was killed at Chancellorsville, Virginia in 1863, bringing additional heartache during wartime hardships. (Friends of the Museum Purchase)

Sampler, 1824

The Long-Established East

Americana

Dazzling Daughters

This exhibit celebrates the lives of DAR members, both yesterday’s and today’s women, whom through diligent application of their unique talents and abilities, have made significant and positive contributions to American or International culture, society, or history. This Website features just a portion of more than 130 DAR Daughters who have received the distinction as a Dazzling Daughter. These women are comprised of first ladies, writers, artists.