This sampler was made by my mother's mother's mother's mother, in 1865, when she was a girl of twelve. Her name was Wilhelmina Hering, and she lived in Dresden in Germany.

A botanical alphabet blooms on this colorful cross-stitch sampler bordered in green. As early as the fifteenth century, needlework samplers served as ways to teach and practice sewing, an important ...

In 1711, John Brightland published “Grammar of the English Tongue.” It included a sampler alphabet for the needlework student. Victorian-era author S. Caulfield wrote, “No girl is considered ...