Sarah Ann Bogert

A praiseworthy sampler featuring an excellent basket of flowers and a pir of fruit baskets, this was made by Sarah Ann Bogert under the direction of a schoolmistress, Mrs. Heywood of Hackensack, New Jersey. Sarah was ten years old when she attended Mrs. Heywood's school and later (for reasons of vanity no doubt) pulled out the threads with which she had stitched the year. 

Another sampler worked at the same school, although without any pictorial images, was made by Catharine Wilsey Van Cleve Boyd in 1829. It also names Mrs. Heywood’s School Hackensack. That sampler is in the Frances Loeb Art Center, Special Collections of Vassar College. 

One particularly unusual feature of our Bogert sampler should be noted: the alphabet worked vertically alternating down the left and right side columns of the sampler. Sarah’s verse, "Honor thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee" is also quite appealing.

Sarah Ann Bogert was born April 16, 1820, the daughter of Gilliam and Maria (Demarest) Bogert. The Bogert family lived in Hackensack and descended from Cornelius Janse Van Den Bogert (1621-1681) who was born in Utrecht, Netherlands and settled in New Amsterdam and then Bergen County where many generations of the Bogert family remained. In 1839, Sarah married Isaac Vanderbeek (1816-1851) and they had at least three children. She died at age 74 in 1895 and is buried in South Schraalenburgh Church Cemetery in Bergen County. 

Worked in silk on linen, the sampler is in very good condition with some very minor areas of loss. It has been conservation mounted and remains in its fine, original mahogany frame.