Sampler (Globe sampler)

Description

This is a terrestrial globe sampler worked with ink, pencil, and silk threads on a silk ground. It was worked in 1815 by Ruth Wright of Exeter, Pennsylvania while attending the Westtown Friends School in Chester County. At this time, schools began to teach academic subjects to young women, including geography. At Westtown, after the girls had mastered easier types of samplers, they moved on to working globes, terrestrial and celestial, a type not found elsewhere. Globes had very little needlework, and instead were intended to demonstrate academic accomplishment. In Westtown globes, the lines of longitude and latitude are couched down and the borders of countries are often done in outline stitches. However, names are hand-printed on the silk background. Stands were sometimes made for these globes, as is the case with Ruth's example.