QUILTS & SAMPLERS AT THE TENNESSEE STATE MUSEUM (Cheri)

5/21/2026

Last spring I went to a talk in Virginia, presented by Salem Stitches, about British samplers created by young women who documented their family trees.

Intrigued by that talk, we went to the Tennessee State Museum this week - barely avoiding the thunderous storms - mainly so that I could see an exhibit of embroidered samplers created by young girls in the 1800's. That exhibit will be at the Museum until June 28.

First, a couple of other textile items that I saw.

This quilt just made me happy. It looked like when the maker had an idea and the fabric to execute it, she made a block and added it to her quilt right then. No worrying over the end result or self-criticism!

This "coverlet" was intriguing. It was really difficult to determine exactly what methods had been used to execute it, and the inspiration was a mystery.

All I could tell was that the creator had a lot of ideas and a lot of time on her hands.

Unfortunately, there was a reason she had the time to create this:

The Museum is impressive, so we were glad that we went for a number of reasons; you'll probably see more from Mark and/or me about other exhibits.

The Museum has quite a few samplers in its permanent collection. The temporary exhibit focused on samplers created during the expansion of elementary education opportunities for girls in Tennessee.

The first two - examples of fine workmanship - could be used for genealogy purposes, like the British ones.

Then there were examples that identified the schools the girls attended (fine handwork being one of the skills that girls were expected to achieve there).

Reading these, I was increasingly interested in just how education for girls grew - first in sparsely-available private academies, and just when and how free public education become available?

Truthfully I mainly admired the designs that the girls worked.