On View
Not on viewSampler
Artist
Ann Orrok
1743
Date1753
Terms
- Samplers
- Linen
- Silk Fiber
- Boston
Dimensions44.42 × 23.48 cm (17 1/2 × 9 1/4 in.)
Credit LineGift of Rebecca Laughlin & Bequest of Ralph Prescott Hurd, by exchange (1989)
Object numberT2498
DescriptionSilk thread stitching, textile (blue, black, green, tan) on linen cloth of 3 different designs of alphabet and one set of numbers. Decorative needlework designs incorportated also. "Elizabeth Orrok wrought this sampler in her teenth [sic] year of her age October the 12 1753".
Two samplers (T2497, T2498) made by two sisters in the Orrok family are the earliest examples of needlework to survive from the Thoreau household. Thoreau at one point pieced together part of his genealogy, perhaps in preparation for a court case, charting his relationship to Boston sailmaker Edward Tillit (also spelled "Tillet") who died in 1757. Tillit was prosperous and owned a mansion house on Prince Street in Boston's North End. His daughter, Sarah, married David Orrok. Their first child, Elizabeth, was born about 1735; she worked the sampler dated 1747. Their third daughter, Ann, was born about five years later; her sampler is dated 1753. The Orrok's youngest daughter, Sarah, married a Scottish man of some apparent means; their daughter, Jane Burns, married John Thoreau. Elizabeth and Ann Orrok were therefore aunts of Thoreau's grandmother.
Elizabeth and Ann Orrok's samplers are two from a well-documented group of samplers worked in one or more schools in pre-Revolutionary Boston. Among the elements that make these samplers distinctive are an overall affinity to English samplers of the 17th century and particular patterns to the bands, especially the band of hexagons. The bands of coronets on Ann's sampler are only infrequently seen on American samplers. The girls who worked these samplers and the canvas-work pictures associated with them were from the most affluent and influential families in New England. The school the Orrok's attended may have been the one kept by Abigail Hiller on Fish Street in the North End.
Two samplers (T2497, T2498) made by two sisters in the Orrok family are the earliest examples of needlework to survive from the Thoreau household. Thoreau at one point pieced together part of his genealogy, perhaps in preparation for a court case, charting his relationship to Boston sailmaker Edward Tillit (also spelled "Tillet") who died in 1757. Tillit was prosperous and owned a mansion house on Prince Street in Boston's North End. His daughter, Sarah, married David Orrok. Their first child, Elizabeth, was born about 1735; she worked the sampler dated 1747. Their third daughter, Ann, was born about five years later; her sampler is dated 1753. The Orrok's youngest daughter, Sarah, married a Scottish man of some apparent means; their daughter, Jane Burns, married John Thoreau. Elizabeth and Ann Orrok were therefore aunts of Thoreau's grandmother.
Elizabeth and Ann Orrok's samplers are two from a well-documented group of samplers worked in one or more schools in pre-Revolutionary Boston. Among the elements that make these samplers distinctive are an overall affinity to English samplers of the 17th century and particular patterns to the bands, especially the band of hexagons. The bands of coronets on Ann's sampler are only infrequently seen on American samplers. The girls who worked these samplers and the canvas-work pictures associated with them were from the most affluent and influential families in New England. The school the Orrok's attended may have been the one kept by Abigail Hiller on Fish Street in the North End.
Collections
- Henry David Thoreau Collection
- Needlework
Object number: PER2165.0001N
Object number: PER2165.0001D
Object number: PER2165.0001A
Object number: PER2165.0001B
Object number: PER2165.0001C
Object number: PER2165.0001E
Object number: PER2165.0001F
Object number: PER2165.0001G