Ann Hibberd
Darning Sampler

MakerAmerican, 1803–1841
MakerWest Chester, Pennsylvania, established 1799
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Darning Sampler
Date1817
Made inWest Chester, Pennsylvania, United States
MediumSilk on linen
Dimensions9 5/8 × 10 11/16 in. (24.5 × 27.1 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, museum purchase funded by Barbara C. Bailey
Object numberB.2022.11
Not on view

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Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

The Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, founded the Westtown School in Chester County, Pennsylvania. It looked to British schools for inspiration in shaping the education of Quaker girls and boys. Students were first admitted in 1799. Today, it is believed to be the oldest continuously operating coeducational boarding school in the United States. Ann Hibberd, who worked this sampler, was born in Chester County in 1803. She entered Westtown in March 1817 and continued there until April 1818.


While Westtown students created ornamental needlework, including embroidered globes, much of what has survived taught practical needlework skills: marking textiles with names or initials or making darning repairs. This sampler is a typical design of Westtown darning samplers, having blocks of seven different darning stitches along with the names of the student, school, and date. Most darning samplers were worked with white thread on a white ground, making them difficult to see and understand from a distance. Examples worked on colored ground fabrics, such as this one, are rarer and show the stitches more clearly. The style of Westtown needlework influenced other regional Quaker and non-Quaker schools.


Provenance[The Chelsea Collection, Chelsea, Michigan]; consigned to [Pook & Pook, Downingtown, Pennsylvania, January 14, 2012, lot 693]; purchased by Susan and Michael Hudson, Warwick Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania; consigned to [Pook & Pook, October 6, 2022, lot 708]; purchased by [M. Finkel & Daughter, Philadelphia], 2022; purchased by MFAH, 2022.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Stitched between the rows of squares: Ann Hibberd / [central stitching pattern square] / West 1817 Town

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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