Embroidered alphabet and numbers sampler, 1810 (LMILC.2009.96, gifted by Carl and Patricia McHargue)
This sampler was found by the donors in 1984 at a church sale in their home city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. After advancements in communication and the internet over 25 years, they contacted the Irish Linen Centre & Lisburn Museum in 2009 for more information and kindly gifted it to our collection. What a journey it has been on!
The wording of the date as ‘4th month 25th 1810’, which was distinctly Quaker, enabled us to identify the sampler as work done at the Ulster Provincial School (now Friends’) on Prospect Hill, Lisburn. The creator of the work, Hannah Morison, was born in 1796 at Killyman, Co. Tyrone, and was admitted to the Lisburn school in 1807.
Domestic crafts, such as this sampler, were specifically for girls and taught them how to stitch. Needlework was considered important for their potential future as wives and mothers.
This sampler, and two others, are featured in our exhibition, Lisburn’s Quaker School: 250 years of Friends.