Ann Maria Fowler
Band Sampler with Quotations from Isaac Watts and Proverbs
1807
Scroll
Ann Maria Fowler
Band Sampler with Quotations from Isaac Watts and Proverbs
1807
Physical Qualities
Linen ground, silk embroidery threads, Framed: 19 3/4 × 19 3/4 × 1 1/2 in. (50.2 × 50.2 × 3.8 cm.); Sight: 16 3/4 × 16 7/8 in. (42.5 × 42.9 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of William L. Reed, Lutherville, Maryland, in Memory of Barbara Garrett Reed
Object Number
1982.139
[Inscription:]
"What is the blooming tincture of the skin To Peace of mind/
and harmony within What the bright sParkling of the/
finest eye To a soft soothing of a calm rePly/
Wisdom is the PrinciPle thing Therefore get Wisdom and/
with all thy getting get Understanding. She shall deliver/
unto thine head an ornament of Grace A Crown of glory/
shall she Deliver unto the[e] . Baltimore SePtember the 20/
One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eight/
Ann Maria . Fowler . 1808"
Ann Maria Fowler proudly embroidered her name in large clear letters upon her band sampler but, unfortunately, not that of her teacher. She may have attended any of a number of schools in Baltimore, including those run by Catharine Groombridge, who kept a school in this city from 1804 to about 1816, or Mrs. Decourt and Mrs. Baconais, who operated their school from 1807 to 1818. The form of this neatly worked sampler with its bands of inscriptions is not usually associated with Baltimore, and may indicate the influence of a recently immigrated English schoolmistress such as "Miss Rooker" who advertised her "English Seminary" in October 1808. This was probably Mary Rooker (1785-1868) who had recently left England with her parents and sisters Harriet (1790-1876) and Rebecca (1793-1862), who soon joined her in running the school.
Ann Maria Fowler was the daughter of Benjamin Fowler and Mary Hughes Fowler. Born on January 2, 1797, she would have been eleven years old when she completed her sampler in which she included verses from the popular Dr. Isaac Watts's "Divine and Moral Songs for Children" published in 1720, and the book of Proverbs, Old Testament. Eight years later on April 25, 1816 she married Thomas Harrison (1788-1874), a Baltimore merchant. They had ten children.
Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1982; Barbara Garrett Reed by purchase Lutherville, MD.
Anita Jones, "The Accomplished Stitch: American Samplers and Silk Embroideries from the Collection," Baltimore: The Baltimore Museum of Art, checklist p. 25, cat. #26.
G. Rodney Crowther III, "The Harrison Family of Ann Arundel County, Maryland," 1960, p. 17.
Betty Ring, "Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers and Pictoral Needlework, 1650-1850," New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993, Vol. II, pp. 498-515, general information.
Mary Jaene Edmonds, "Samplers & Samplermakers: An American Schoolgirl Art 1700-1850," New York: Rizzoli/Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991, pp. 133-141.
Betty Ring, "Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers and Pictoral Needlework, 1650-1850," New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993, Vol. II, pp. 498-515, general information.
Mary Jaene Edmonds, "Samplers & Samplermakers: An American Schoolgirl Art 1700-1850," New York: Rizzoli/Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991, pp. 133-141.
Inscribed: See Description for complete inscription. Inscribed at the bottom in embroidered threads: "Baltimore SePtember the 20/One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eight/ Ann Maria . Fowler . 1808"
