Early Americana Girls' Education Cross-Stitch Sampler Made Together by 2 Eight-Year Old Girls in 1814

[Girls' Education] Original cross-stitch alphabet sampler from two 8-year old girls. 1814. In frame: 15.5 x 20.5". Alphabet cross-stitched in capital and lower case letters. Vowels, numbers 0-9, and floral designs in backstitch. Girls' names Verna L Haywood and Elizabeth Hope stitched below along with "at best 1814", "Age eight years," and "Give thanks to the Lord". This piece has interestingly been worked by both girls. The fabric upon which they stitched have been sewn together in a vertical line down the center. The stiches on either side are distinct; the capital letters on the right half, for instance, are generally stitched in a more straight line, while the letters on the left side have greater variation in height.Samplers were valuable parts of girls' education from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, as it demonstrated both their skill in needlepoint and their achievements in literacy. From the 1800s, the very first schools and academies for young women in America had their students create needlepoint pieces with decorative motifs such as verses, or the entire alphabet being stitched on the sampler. The parents of these young women proudly displayed their embroideries as showpieces of their daughter's talent, and status. In recent years, these samplers have become important in museum collections as representations of early American female education. Some light staining and fading to fabric. Overall in very good condition.