Family register sampler
Sarah A. Chalker1832
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
New York, United States
Dark ground with light embroidery. At the top, three alphabets and one set of numerals. In the center, an arched framework with an incomplete record of the names, births and deaths of the children of Jesse Chalker and Sarah Andruswae (?), married January 10, 1818. Verses fill the space on either side: Abstain from all appearance of evilFor the son of man is to come to save that which was lostVerily verily I say unto you he that believeth in me shall have everlasting lifeProve all things hold fast that which is goodThere remaineth therefore a rest to the people of GodFor the kingdom of God is not in word but in powerSeek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is nearWith an inscription in the lower right corner.
- Title: Family register sampler
- Creator: Sarah A. Chalker
- Creator Lifespan: 1819/1879
- Date Created: 1832
- Physical Dimensions: w560 x h430 cm
- Type: Family register sampler
- Rights: Bequest of Mrs. Henry E. Coe
- Medium: Medium: silk embroidery on wool foundation Technique: embroidered in cross stitch on plain weave foundation
- Viewing Notes: Family register samplers, like this example by Sarah A. Chalker, were a way of documenting and preserving family histories. They were frequently worked by schoolgirls as part of the later phase of their needlework education. The information in this sampler is organized in rows and framed by a scrolled arch and classical columns, revealing a neoclassical influence. Its green linsey-woolsey ground is a distinctive feature of works from Hartford County, Connecticut, and Essex County, Massachusetts. Sarah was the oldest child of Sarah Andrus and Jesse Chalker, a Hartford hatter. Her needlework records the birth and marriage dates of her parents and the birth dates of her siblings, Jesse, Timothy, Hannah, and Julia. Also included are the birth and death dates of two brothers, both named Charles, who died as small children. Sarah had another sister, Hellon (b. 1835), who was not yet born when the sampler was completed.In 1838, Sarah married Perez L. Smith, a tailor from Massachusetts. They lived in Hartford, where they resided with Sarah's parents until their deaths (her father died between 1850 and 1852 and her mother died in 1855). The couple had at least five children: Sarah (b. 1843), Clarence (b. 1839, d. 1860?), Jesse (b. 1848, d. 1849), Jessa (b. 1850), and Henry (b. 1859). By 1870, Sarah and Perez had moved to Woodbury, Connecticut, with their youngest child, Henry. Sarah died in 1879 at the age of sixty, and was buried in her hometown of Hartford.
- Provenance: By 1941, Mrs. Henry E. Coe (Eva Johnston Coe)1941, Museum for the Arts of Decoration of the Cooper Union
- Inscribed: Wrought by Sarah A. Chalker Aged 13 1832
- Exhibitions: New York, NY, Cooper-Hewitt Museum. Stitched in Time, May 14 - July 18, 1969.
- Dimensions: H x W: 43 x 56 cm (16 15/16 x 22 1/16 in.)
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