Rebecca Jane Fite
Building Sampler
1839
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Rebecca Jane Fite
Building Sampler
1839
Physical Qualities
Silk embroidery threads on linen ground, 18 3/8 x 17 3/8 in. (46.7 x 44.1 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Francis White, from the Collection of Mrs. Miles White, Jr.
Object Number
1973.76.384
By the second decade of the 19th century, building samplers had become the fashion at Baltimore schools. Some scholars speculate that the great houses decorating John and Hugh Finlay's painted Baltimore furniture may have contributed to this development. Several Baltimore building samplers include floral borders punctuated with blue bows similar to the one embroidered on Rebecca Fite's sampler. It is difficult, however, to assign this sampler to Baltimore on the basis of style, since similar buildings with fences and lion lawn sculptures were worked in Ohio, and similar borders with blue bows have been found on samplers thought to be from Pennsylvania. Genealogical studies, however, indicate that Rebecca Jane Fite was one of five children of Martha Barnett Fite and Andrew Fite, who may have lived in Baltimore. At nineteen, Rebecca Fite would have been older than most sampler-makers.
Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1973; Nancy Brewster (Mrs. Frances White) by inheritance; Virginia Purviance Bonsal (Mrs. Miles White, Jr.).
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 & Pictorial Needlework, 1650-1850, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993, Vol. II, pp. 506-515.
Betty Ring, American Needlework Treasures: Samplers and Silk Embroideries from the collection of Betty Ring, New York: E.P. Dutton/Museum of American Folk Art, 1987, p. 30, figs. 47 and 48; p. 47, fig. 79 for samplers with similar tree motifs.
M. Finkel & Daughter, Samplings, (Spring, 1992), p. 14 for building sampler of similar style by Julian Stevenson of Baltimore.
M. Finkel & Daughter, Samplings, (Vol. II, 1992), p. 15 for building sampler with exact same border/bow motifs and a building worked by Ann M. O. Rau c. 1825 which the authors claim was most likely worked in Pennsylvania.
Sue Studebaker, Ohio Samplers: Schoolgirl Embroideries 1803-1850, Lebanon, Ohio: The Warren County Historical Society Museum, 1988, front cover, for a sampler with a similar house with fence, lions, and tree.
Betty Ring, Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers & Pictorial Needlework, 1650-1850, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993, Vol. II, pp. 506-515.
Betty Ring, American Needlework Treasures: Samplers and Silk Embroideries from the collection of Betty Ring, New York: E.P. Dutton/Museum of American Folk Art, 1987, p. 30, figs. 47 and 48; p. 47, fig. 79 for samplers with similar tree motifs.
M. Finkel & Daughter, Samplings, (Spring, 1992), p. 14 for building sampler of similar style by Julian Stevenson of Baltimore.
M. Finkel & Daughter, Samplings, (Vol. II, 1992), p. 15 for building sampler with exact same border/bow motifs and a building worked by Ann M. O. Rau c. 1825 which the authors claim was most likely worked in Pennsylvania.
Sue Studebaker, Ohio Samplers: Schoolgirl Embroideries 1803-1850, Lebanon, Ohio: The Warren County Historical Society Museum, 1988, front cover, for a sampler with a similar house with fence, lions, and tree.
Inscribed: Embroidered at the bottom of the sampler: 'Rebecca Jane Fite's work finished/ Aug 27th 1840'
