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Saturday 23 June 2012

Wisconsin Historical Society Sampler Collection On Line


The collection of samplers in Wisconsin Historical Society is eclectic and cosmopolitan.

There are 64 examples for you to study and you will see English, German and Dutch samplers represented there - like the pattern darned sampler above.

The sampler above is interesting for its sailing ships and not one, but two motifs labelled Solomon's Temple. This is the motif we usually refer to as Solomon's Porch - since there is a substantial body of samplers having a much larger representation of Solomon's Temple. However, it is interesting to see that the maker knew this smaller version as Temple. This map sampler below is glorious! It takes me back to time when I began studying US History for my A Levels - the very first lesson we had to draw, without looking, a map of the US - it was a comedic and sobering moment to compare our attempts at drawing something we all thought we knew so well - obviously we didn't! I have to put my hand up to making those lakes much larger than they should have been - I wonder if it was anything to do with my then addiction to Samuel Champlain or the Leather Stocking Tales? To visit the sampler collection yourself, just click here.

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