An early and appealing sampler with alphabets, bands and a delightful pictorial register with flowers, baskets of fruit, birds and two lions along the bottom, this was made by Hannah Whitmore of Newbury, Massachusetts. She stitched her birthdate on the sampler, “Hannah Whitmore Born May 10 1779” – note that she placed the final digit on the line above. Hannah was the daughter of David and Lydia (Giddings) Whitmore; the Whitmore family in America began with Hannah’s great-great-great-grandfather, Francis Whitmore (1625-1685) who was born in Hertfordshire, England and lived his adult life in Massachusetts. Her father, David (1734-1828), a ship carpenter, was a Minute Man who marched on the Lexington Alarm as part of Capt. Moses Little’s company.

Hannah would have made this sampler when she was about ten or eleven years old. In 1801, she married John Little Carr (1778-1815), of Newburyport. They remained there and their four children were born between 1802 and 1807. John died young, Hannah didn’t remarry and died in 1864.

The sampler was worked in silk on linen and is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a birds-eye maple beveled frame with a black bead.