00620061001
Sampler
Sampler
Lake, Caroline (created by)
01/01/???? (Earliest/Latest dates)
From the Spring 2006 issue of "Sharon Archives, Collections Connection": "a beautiful cross-stitched sampler, about 18 inches square. It is exquisite, and in perfect condition except for many small rusty nail holes all around the edge where it was nailed to a home made wooden backing. Wearing white cotton gloves and using a tiny needle, we gently lifted the fabric away from the remaining nails and laid it flat on a piece of acid-free cardboard for further inspection. Though a little browned with age, the fabric appears to be linen, in a loose weave almost like burlap. Much of the stitching is also brown in places, making the words hard to read at first glance. But upon closer inspection, with the aid of several Sharon genealogical records, the meaning of the sampler becomes clear. A floral border is embroidered around the entire edge. Across the bottom, inside the border, are a two storey house, a tree, a box in which it says "Marked by Caroline Lake, Sharon, Conn, Aged 18, July 27, 1825", a bunch of roses, and a weeping willow hanging over a monument that reads "In memory of the dead". Across the top is stitched "Family Records". The next line reads "Names, births, marriages, deaths". A pair of entwined hearts is stitched under "marriages" and a black coffin with a white heart on the lid is under "deaths". The next bit of information is the birth and marriage dates for Caroline's parents, "Andrew Lake - July 30, 1779, Betsey Woodard - April 20, 1787, Married November 14, 1802". Under that is stitched a horizontal white line and three vertical ones, creating a cross-stitched chart. One the left are the names of Caroline and her siblings. The next column is for their births dates and is filled with the appropriate information. The last two columns are blank, suggesting that none of the Lake children had married in 1825, although some later did. Several members of the family are buried in Hillside Cemetery, including Caroline herself, who died in 1890 at age 83, but none of that information is recorded either. Caroline was the only girl, with 6 brothers born over a span of 20 years: Jesse Woodard, Nathaniel Buel, Joseph, Chauncey Griswold, Caleb Martin and Andrew. The Lakes were once a large family in the Sharon area, and Caroline must have loved her brothers enough to immortalize them on her sampler. However, she apparently was distracted before finishing the piece, as evidenced by the fact that the floral border on the right side has some green leaves stitched in to it with none on the top, bottom or left side, and a box at the top is partly contained within green thread, a long piece of which is still hanging loose. Perhaps she was interrupted or picked on by a boisterous brother and simply decided she didn't care enough to finish. We'll never know. But at least she did care enough to save her handiwork." The Collections Committee examined the sampler and noted that the original colors (seen on the reverse) were orange, dark green, and yellow on cream. The types of stitching include cross-stitch, stain stitch, split stitch, outline stitch, and Algerian eye stitch.
2006.10.01