red and green sampler on cream coloured canvas

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

51524

Title

A sampler, sewn in red and green wool on cream coloured canvas.

Description

A sampler, sewn in red and green wool on cream coloured canvas. The alphabet is sewn twice over in upper and lowercase letters, followed by the numbers 1 to 9 and ‘1886 Barbara Seaton 10ys Victoria School.

Date

1886

Location

Museum of Childhood

Copyright

The City of Edinburgh Council Museums and Galleries

This detailed sampler was made by ten year old Barbara Seaton at Victoria Primary School in Newhaven. Making a needlework sampler was a standard part of girls’ elementary education during the late 19th century. In an age when most clothes and household linen were made and mended at home, sewing was an essential skill for women. Girls from wealthier households were likely to use their needlework skills for pleasure but Barbara was from a working-class family where darning and altering clothes were more in demand.

She and her family lived at 44 New Lane, Newhaven. Her father, George, was a fisherman and her mother, also Barbara, (née Flucker), was a fishwife. At the time of the 1881 Census, there were five children – Ann, George, Barbara, Robina and baby Helen. Ten years later, 14 year old Barbara had left school and was employed as a domestic servant in the household of Thomas Shaw, an advocate living at 17 Abercrombie Place, Edinburgh. Her duties may have included some needlework for the family or she may have been confined to cleaning and helping in the kitchen.

Barbara Seaton died at age 24 in 1900 from a form of tuberculosis. Hopefully her short life was more than just hard work and she enjoyed some of the benefits of growing up in a coastal village with fresh sea air. This sampler survives to tell at least part of her story

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Related subjects

Education > Educational facilities > Schools

Places > Edinburgh areas > Newhaven

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

Sport and leisure > Activities > Sewing

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