Sampler
Julia Ann Nivers1833
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
New York, United States
Several bands of alphabets and numerals separated by narrow geometric borders, and an inscription.In the lower half, a verse in two columns and a view of Crawford, New Hampshire; all within a stylized floral border. Embroidered in colored silks on a white linen ground.The verse reads:THE YOUNG AND GIDDY Invited to ChristYoung sinners to counsel give earFrom Juvenile levity ceaseThe god of omnipotence fearThe fountain of wisdom and peaceThe gospel illumines the wayTo climes of extatic [sic] delightWhere storms never ruffle the dayAnd where it will never be nightYour pleasures are empty and vainAnd can but a moment endureThey yield by confusion and painThe soul to destruction allureWhy slight ye the Saviour o sayTo save you he yielded his breathThe tempests of life he can layAnd cheer the lone valley of death
- Title: Sampler
- Creator: Julia Ann Nivers
- Creator Lifespan: 1823/1870
- Date Created: 1833
- Physical Dimensions: w480 x h490 cm
- Type: Sampler
- Rights: Bequest of Mrs. Henry E. Coe
- Medium: Medium: silk embroidery on linen foundation Technique: embroidered in cross, satin, and eyelet stitches on plain weave foundation
- Viewing Notes: Julia Ann Niver's sampler features a townscape beneath three alphabets and a religious verse, enclosed in a border of stylized strawberries. Of the buildings depicted on the sampler, only the Hopewell Presbyterian Church can be identified. Construction on the Gothic Revival building, which still stands today in Julia's hometown of Crawford, New York, began in 1831. The first services were held there in 1832, which may have been why Julia chose to highlight the church on her 1833 sampler. Born in 1823, Julia Ann Niver was the daughter of Elizabeth Rumsey (1795-1863) and Ephraim Niver (1789-1879). She had at least one sibling, an older sister, Rachel Ann (1819-1898). In 1849, Julia married David Smith (b. 1823), a farmer. The couple had a son, Charles W., born in 1853, who also became a farmer. Julia lived until at least 1900, at which time she was seventy-six, widowed, and living with her son, two farm laborers, and a domestic servant.
- Provenance: By 1941, Mrs. Henry E. Coe (Eva Johnston Coe)1941, Museum for the Arts of Decoration of the Cooper Union
- Inscribed: Julia Ann Nivers Sampler town of Crawford 1833
- Dimensions: H x W: 48 x 50 cm (18 7/8 x 19 11/16 in.)
- Bibliography: Ethel Stanwood Bolton and Eva Johnston Coe, American Samplers (Boston: The Massachusetts Society of the Colonial Dames of America, 1921) 104, 254.
Get the app
Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more
