Betsy Bruce's Sampler
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Object Details
- Bruce, Betsy
- Description
- The name “Betsy Bruce” appears at end of one alphabet. Below the alphabets is the inscription:
- "Seize Mortals seize the present hour Lifes a short summer
Man’s a flower he dies alas how soon he dies. E. B. 14 Y.”
The “E.B.” may stand for her sister Eveline Bruce who died July 21, 1817. - Betsy Bruce’s inscription is an adaptation of an Ode for Winter by English poet Samuel Johnson (1709-1784). The sampler is stitched with silk and cotton embroidery thread on a linen ground with a thread count of warp 22, weft 22/ in. The stitches used are cross, Algerian eye, and crosslet
- Betsy Bruce was born on September 2, 1809, in Marlborough, Vermont to Rev. Mansfield and Grace Goddard Bruce. She married Origen Smith (1810-1884) on May 11, 1837. They had two children - Irenaeus OP born on February 5, 1841, and Elizabeth, born c.1845. Betsy died on October 4, 1882.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of Miss Grace L. Temple
- 1822-1824
- ID Number
- TE.T7729A
- catalog number
- T7729A
- accession number
- 139053
- Object Name
- embroidery, sampler
- sampler
- Physical Description
- linen (ground material)
- silk and cotton (threads material)
- Measurements
- overall: 12 in x 12 1/4 in; 30.48 cm x 31.115 cm
- place made
- United States: Vermont, Marlboro
- See more items in
- Home and Community Life: Textiles
- Samplers
- Textiles
- National Museum of American History
- Record ID
- nmah_639573
- Metadata Usage (text)
- CC0
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a4-a2fc-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
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