In 1834, 14-year-old Martha Thompson (1821-1854) made this sampler in Center Moriches. Detailed with the alphabet, her name, year of her birth, and a short poem, it was completed as a way for Martha to practice her needlework, writing, and reading skills.
The back of the sampler has a transcription of the poem and a brief account of the sampler’s ownership. Martha married Arnold Edwards (1815-1867) in the early 1840s and moved to Sag Harbor before 1850, taking her sampler with her.
Samplers originated with European embroiderers who used them as references for their work. Their use as a learning tool dates to the 17th century, and by the 19th century samplers were mainly made by young girls as a way to practice the alphabet and their stitches. This practice would continue into the 20th century.
In 2024, Janet Gilbert Hunter, Martha’s great-great-granddaughter, recorded the history of the sampler and its owners. She said that after Martha’s death in 1854, her sampler passed to her eldest daughter, Louisa Edwards Osborn (1851-1926). Louisa, a Wainscott School teacher, married John Melvin Osborn (1846-1894) in 1875. She moved into the Osborn farmhouse and had another house built on the property in 1904.
After Louisa’s death, her daughter, Amy Osborn Bassford (1892-1977), inherited the sampler. Amy was hired by the East Hampton Library and headed the Long Island Collection after she had retired as a librarian in New York City. Amy died in 1977, leaving Martha’s sampler to her daughter, Amy Bassford Hunter (1918-2007), whose own daughter, Janet Gilbert Hunter, inherited the sampler after her mother’s death in 2007.
In 2023, Janet donated the sampler to the Long Island Collection, where it could be cared for and stewarded for future generations.
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Megan Bardis is a librarian and archivist in the East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection.
