Family register sampler
Abigail Barnard1833
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
New York, United States
Family Record giving the dates of birth, marriage and death of members of the Barnard family. At the top, two octagonal cartouches with blue grounds are separated by a basket of fruit and birds. The primary information is arranged in a table with columns of pink, white and tan. Two square cartouches at the bottom with blue grounds and a basket of fruit between, contain a verse: Time flies a PaceIn ceaseless raceMan hurries to the tombIn bliss or woeEre long to knowHis everlasting doomThen let thy heartWho ere thou artTo wisdoms way inclineUse well this hourWhile in thy PowerFor the next may not be thineWith a strawberry vine border and inscription. The death date for the second Abigail Barnard (daughter) has been written in with ink "Oct. 2. 1885" Several of the dates are later than the date given in the signature.
Details
- Title: Family register sampler
- Creator: Abigail Barnard
- Creator Lifespan: 1806/1885
- Date Created: 1833
- Physical Dimensions: w440 x h445 cm
- Type: Family register sampler
- Rights: Bequest of Mrs. Henry E. Coe
- Medium: Medium: silk and cotton embroidery on linen foundation Technique: embroidered in cross stitch on plain weave foundation
- Viewing Notes: This family register sampler, with its melancholy verse about the fleeting nature of life, was stitched in 1833 by Abigail Barnard. Although such samplers were typically part of the needlework education of schoolgirls, Abigail created this example at the age of twenty-seven to document the birth, marriage, and death dates of her parents and siblings. Born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Abigail was the daughter of a military sergeant. She had four brothers and four sisters, including another Abigail, who died before her namesake was born. Abigail never married and resided with her father and mother until their deaths in 1842 and 1852, respectively. According to census data, she was living alone in 1870, but by 1880, at the age of seventy-four, she was sharing a household with her fifty-three-year-old niece, Lucy, who worked as a dressmaker. Unlike many recorders of such family histories, who often left their samplers incomplete, Abigail faithfully stitched in the marriage and death dates of her brothers and sisters as they occurred. The single missing date is that of the 1886 death of her brother John, who was the only sibling to outlive her. The date of Abigail's own death, October 2, 1885, has been added in ink.
- Provenance: By 1941, Mrs. Henry E. Coe (Eva Johnston Coe)1941, Museum for the Arts of Decoration of the Cooper Union
- Inscribed: Wrought by Abigail Barnard Pittsfield Mass. 1833
- Dimensions: H x W: 44.5 x 44 cm (17 1/2 x 17 5/16 in.)
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