A group of Newport samplers, dating as early as 1715, predate the earliest identifiable examples made in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, or Charleston. Fashioned in a rectangular band pattern, they follow an English precedent. By the mid-1750s, these stylized designs began to transition to naturalistic ones. Sarah Johnson’s embroidery is a fully developed example of this latest group, which is referred to as the “frolicking people.” Stylistically, the composition consists of people, animals and houses randomly positioned throughout a layered format framed by meandering vines and flowers. Scholars have suggested that the pattern may have originated with Mrs. Sarah Haggar Osborn, who taught school in Newport between 1734 and about 1776.

Related examples: Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Newport Historical Society, Rhode Island Historical Society, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, and the American Museum in Britain.