Samplers: embroidered archives

In addition to works of art, craftsmanship and archaeological objects, the National Museum has also been collecting everyday objects from Luxembourg for decades. These include the almost 100 embroidered samplers that are now part of the collection. The alphabet samplers, sewing exercises and patchwork patterns not only document various embroidery and sewing techniques, but also give us an insight into the lives of young Luxembourgish women. The cloths bear witness to the young girls' schooling.

Introduction

It was precisely because of this complexity that we decided to focus on the museum's sampler collection as part of Archive Month 2023, whose theme was "Diverse archives, diversity of archives".

Perhaps the first thing you imagine when you think of archives is important documents stored in neatly lined-up boxes on high shelves in a dark storeroom. But do they have to be paper documents? The reason why so much effort is invested in preserving memories of the past is that they authentically document the activities of their creators. For a long time, it was mainly the writings of organizations such as the state and influential people that were considered important, preserved, and interpreted. Since the 1970s, this view of what is "important" to preserve has changed. The feeling of many people, then and now, that the world is changing rapidly and that the old familiar is gradually disappearing, has led museums to become more involved with everyday cultures and to collect seemingly inconspicuous objects.

There are many types of documents that tell us something about the activities of those who created them. These include embroidered samplers. When samplers are viewed as archival documents, they reveal themselves as historical sources that provide insights into the lives of their makers. In Europe, the earliest surviving samplers date from the 16th century. They were primarily used to memorize a particular stitch for later use. Over time, another type of sampler emerged: so-called band samplers. They were made as a template for an embroidery pattern, which usually contained the ABCs.

Until the second half of the 20th century, embroidery was an integral part of the education of young women in Luxembourg. They would later use this skill to label, mend or even make items of linen and clothing in their households. Samplers reveal how different school education was for girls and boys. Girls were to be trained as housewives while boys were taught that sewing and embroidery were women's work: these subjects were not part of their school curriculum.

Different "types" of samplers

Most of the samplers in our collection were made at school. The oldest are about 130 years old, the youngest were made in the 1960s. It is remarkable that we have received several sampler donations that not only contain samplers from several generations of women within a family, but also several pieces per embroiderer that were made during her training.

On the one hand, this allows the differences and similarities between different time periods to be documented and analyzed. For example, the way samplers were made over these 130 years changed very little. On the other hand, it gives us insight into which embroidery and sewing techniques were considered part of a "good, comprehensive education". There are various types of samplers in the collection: alphabet samplers, sewing samplers, and patchwork samplers for linen and wool. In this order, these pieces bear witness to the girls' progressive education.

A-Z

The first pieces the girls made were so-called alphabet-samplers. Thanks to the information provided by the family members who entrusted us with the pieces, we often know the date of birth of the embroiderers and can use the embroidered date to determine how old they were when they embroidered the sampler: in general, they were between 9 and 11 years old. The young age of the embroiderers when they stitched these pieces suggests that these samplers are the first large pieces they created during their school careers.

The samplers all look noticeably similar, regardless of whether they were embroidered around 1900 or 1955. The alphabet was composed of comparatively large red cross stitches on a square of coarsely woven sieve cloth. It is not known why only red threads were used for this type of work in Luxembourg and the surrounding area until the middle of the 20th century. It is probably a combination of pragmatism - red stands out well against uncolored white fabric - and convention - it has always been done this way.

In the pieces from the 1960s, we realize that the convention of using a red thread no longer predominates. There are samplers from the 1960s that were still made exclusively with red thread, but also samplers that were embroidered with green and pink - or many colored threads.

In many cases, although not always, the alphabet is embroidered twice - once in block letters and once in italics - as well as all the numbers. They are also decorated with geometric motifs and sometimes even with additional pictorial motifs. We know from embroiderers' stories that some teachers suggested the motifs and that only those girls who had completed their alphabet before the end of the school year were allowed to embroider them. The initials or the whole name of the embroiderer and the year of creation are also a common part of such work. The aim of this exercise on one hand was certainly to practice the fine motor skills required for sewing, and on the other hand, the girls were to create a pattern for the letters with which they would later mark and decorate their family's clothing and bed linen.

On two of the sewing pieces - which were photographed and reexamined during the recent project on the samplers in the museum collection - it is noticeable at second glance that the last letter in the alphabet is missing. That reminds us that these samplers were created as an educational tool. They were intended for learning embroidery and were sometimes left unfinished.

Sewing samplers

After the alphabet samplers, often in the following school year, the girls embroidered sewing samplers. At this point, the girls were usually between 10 and 13 years old. Here, they learnt other useful sewing and embroidery techniques in addition to the cross stitches of the alphabet samplers. Instead of embroidering on coarsely woven cloth, these were done on cotton or linen fabrics. Starting with a few rows of simple straight stitches, the stitches gradually become more elaborate. Most cloths show front and back stitches, loop stitches, buttonhole stitches, decorative stitches, and cross stitches as well as sewn-on buttons and hooks. These stitches can be used to sew and alter garments and keep a household's laundry in good condition. Some, though not all, of the sewing samplers in our collection contain a small patch, a sewn-on square of the same fabric that could be used to repair a theoretically damaged area. The fact that mending clothes was a part of school education shows how widespread and necessary this practice was in everyday life.

Based on the pieces in our collection, we can also see a change in the form of this type of work from the 1960s onwards. From this time onwards, the samplers were often sewn together in a way to form bags and were also made with colored threads, sometimes even from colorful fabric.

Mending samplers

In the following year, the girls learnt the most difficult technique to date: darning. In contrast to the previously mentioned mending technique, in which an area of the fabric is cut out and replaced with a square of new fabric, darning involves mending the hole or worn-through area with threads only. Additional threads are woven into the existing fabric to reinforce or repair it. The finer the fabric to be repaired is woven, the more difficult darning is. Interestingly, not only red but also blue threads were used for this work. The contrasting colours make it easier to recognise the weaving pattern and are therefore useful both during the execution and later when the pattern is reused elsewhere. In a real patch, however, threads of the same colour as the fabric were chosen so that the area remains as inconspicuous as possible, which makes the sewing technique more difficult to execute.

This type of sampler is usually divided into small squares, each of which contains a patch design. The embroiderer's initials and the date are often found in one of the center squares.

Family history through samplers

The first major donation of samplers to the National Museum came from the Pierret-Müller family (inv. no. 1988-174).

In August 1988, Marguerite Müller donated 15 samplers to the museum - those of her mother Marie Pierret (1879-1925), those of her sister Marie Müller and her own. Two of Marie Pierret's pieces have been preserved, a mending sampler on wool and a sewing technique sampler. Both are interesting not only because of their age (made in 1893 and 1894), but also because of their peculiarities compared to other samplers in the collection. The choice of colors - green and pink - is particularly striking in the patchwork sampler. Other samplers in the collection have the aforementioned white base and red/blue patches. The sampler that Marie Pierret made at the age of 15 bears witness not only to an extensive repertoire of techniques but also to the school in which she embroidered - next to her name and the date, she embroidered the letters "Souvenir de l'école supérieure" in very fine cross stitches - and thus indicates the level of her education – école supérieure meaning high school.

Two of the samplers, an alphabet sampler from 1909 and a sewing sampler from 1914, are signed Maria. The exact dates of her life are not known, but we do know that her mother Marie Pierret married Maria's father Pierre Müller in 1899. It is therefore likely that Maria was born in 1900 or 1901, which means she would have stiched her alphabet sampler at 8 or 9 and her sewing pattern sampler at 13 or 14. She also attended secondary school, as the second sampler shows. The alphabet sampler dated 1916, as well as a sewing pattern from 1925 and a woolen patchwork sampler from 1926 can possibly be attributed to her younger sister, Marguerite Müller, due to the later dates.

Discovering a life through sewing - Irene Müller

From Irène Müller, born on 9 January 1919 in Rümelingen, we have one of the most complete collections of embroidery cloths. What makes this collection special is that it gives us an insight into her life that goes beyond her school days. Irène Müller became a teacher herself after her school days--and at a significant time.

We have several embroideries from her early school days, such as this alphabet sampler. When this beautiful piece was stitched, she was 10 years old.

The patchwork and embroidery samplers, on the other hand, which were created around 1938-1939, were part of Irène's teacher training. This can be recognized by the precise elaboration and multitude of stitches and patches, all of which can be found in exemplary fashion on the samplers.

If you compare the samplers from Irene's own school days with the later ones she made as a teacher, you can easily recognize the progress of her skills. Especially when comparing the patchwork shawls from 1931 and 1938, it is clear at first glance that the work from 1938 is much more finely executed.

Some of her undated works, which she possibly embroidered as examples for her students, have also been preserved. As she always taught the so-called "lower grade", teaching embroidered letters was her daily routine.

The samplers run like a red thread through her eventful life. Irène Müller had just completed her training as a teacher when the Second World War broke out. In October 1940, she worked for a short time in her hometown of Rümelingen before being transferred by the German authorities to Zewen near Trier. The documents that were given to us with the samplers bear witness to the war period and the German occupation. Irène Müller had to change her first name, as non-German names were not permitted in the civil service. Irene then worked in Zewen until the end of the German occupation of Luxembourg.

Immediately after the liberation of Luxembourg, she returned to Rümelingen, where she worked as a teacher until her retirement. The documents also show that she fell ill several times during the war, which is why she was classified as unfit for work by the "Office des dommages de Guerre" in 1945 and received compensation. Despite her persistent illness, she continued to work as a teacher at Rümelingen school for many years from 1946. It was not until 1947 that she was appointed as a teacher. In 1971, Irène Müller was appointed head teacher, but she had to retire in the same year due to her failing health.

News on the embroideries in the National Museum

In June 2023, as part of the Mois des Archives (Month of the Archives), a workshop was offered in which participants could learn some stitches and embroider their own sampler, as well as discover the pieces from the museum's collection. These can be viewed at any time on the digital collection platform MNAHA Collections, where they can be used both as a source of inspiration and as research objects. Since June last year, 30 more embroideries have been added to the collection and numerous others have been digitized. These are now accessible on the collection platform.

Unfortunately, research interest in the Luxembourg samplers and their producers has so far been very limited. The question therefore remains as to how many samplers are still hidden in the depths of linen chests in Luxembourg attics or hanging on walls as decorative objects. Documenting further examples and re-examining them as documents and archives could help us to learn more about the many Luxembourgish embroiderers, their upbringing, and their interests through the samplers.

Text | CC BY-NC | Edurne Kugeler and Isabelle Maas

With the support of Caroline Rocco

Samplers: embroidered archives

Samplers: embroidered archives

Introduction

Different "types" of samplers

A-Z

Sewing samplers

Mending samplers

Family history through samplers

Discovering a life through sewing - Irene Müller

News on the embroideries in the National Museum

Further reading

Note to user