Family Register Sampler (USA)

Family register samplers, frequently worked by schoolgirls as part of the later phase of their needlework education, were a way of documenting and preserving family histories. Harriot Collens’s example records the dates of her parents’ births and marriage, and the birth dates of her eight brothers and sisters. She also included the death dates of the two siblings who had died by the time she completed the piece. The sampler has a solidly worked, dark background, and is bordered on three sides by a vine of fruit and flowers. Within the central panel, the family’s information is neatly organized in rows, which was typical of such samplers made after 1800. Beneath this is a band of pictorial ornament consisting of a basket of fruit flanked by two baskets of flowers.

Born in Guilford, Connecticut, Harriot Collens (1790–1874) was the daughter of Friend Collens (b. 1762) and Philana (or Phileny) Norton (b. 1761). In 1810, she married Abraham Kimberly (1786–1871), a house carpenter. The couple lived in Guilford all their lives and had ten children: Edward Augustus (b. 1811), Harriet Elizabeth (b. 1813), Julia Ann (1815–1855), Abraham (b. 1818), Mary Ann Chamberlain (1820–1823), Charles Robert (1823–1853), William Henry (b. and d. 1825), Mary Ann Chamberlain (b. 1827), Frances Amelia (b. 1830), and Henry (1834–1835).

Family Register Sampler (USA); Embroidered by Harriot Collens, American (American, 1790 - 1874); silk embroidery, linen warp, wool weft; H x W: 39 x 44 cm (15 3/8 x 17 5/16 in.); Bequest of Mrs. Henry E. Coe; 1941-69-58