Mary Bishop's Sampler
date: label: date made
content: 1800-1825
name: label: maker
content: Bishop, Mary
notes: label: Description
content: There is a wide floral crossband at the center of the sampler, worked with crinkled silk thread in long, couched stitches. At the bottom of the sampler are three large and two small floral motifs, and among them these initials: “WB SB CB JB.” All four edges are finished with wide green silk ribbon. Mary Bishop included an inscription and the names Joseph Bishop, Mary Bishop, and Sarah Bishop.
label: Description
content: Inscription: "In the sightless are I dwell / On the sloping sunbeams pley / Delve the cavern’s inmost cell / Where never yet did daylight stray / Joseph Bishop / Mary Bishop / Sarah Bishop."
label: Description
content: Mary’s inscription is from a poem entitled “Song of a Spirit” by Ann Ward Radcliffe (1764-1823). Mrs. Radcliffe was a popular English writer in her day and this poem is from her 1791 historical Gothic romance novel <i>The Romance of the Forest.</i> The sampler is stitched with silk embroidery thread on a linen ground with a thread count of warp 28, weft 30/in. The stitches used are cross, satin, eyelet, rice, stem, outline, and crosslet.
label: Description
content: Despite including the names of possibly her mother and father, nothing could be found about the life of Mary Bishop.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
label: See more items in
content: Samplers
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content: Textiles
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Mrs. Marjorie Fristoe
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.T15008
label: catalog number
content: T15008
label: accession number
content: 286272
objectType: label: Object Name
content: embroidery, sampler
label: Object Name
content: sampler
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: linen (ground material)
label: Physical Description
content: silk (embroidery thread material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 15 1/2 in x 12 1/8 in; 39.37 cm x 30.7975 cm