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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
This I did to let you see: Threads of Literacy and Learning on Hopkinton Samplers
Hopkinton, Rhode Island (May 3 – Oct. 11, 2026)
Exhibition of Rhode Island samplers hosted by the Hopkinton Historical Association (Sundays, May 3 – Oct. 11, 2026). On display are fourteen schoolgirl samplers (1792-1835) with ties to Rhode Island’s historic town of Hopkinton. The exhibit was curated by Dr. Lynne Anderson, President of the Sampler Consortium International. The Hopkinton Historical Association is located on Town Hall Road, Hopkinton, Rhode Island. To make special arrangements for groups, contact Lauri Aruda, President of the Hopkinton Historical Association (401-363-5747).
On Point: Needlework from the Garthwaite Family Collection
Shelburne Museum, Shelburne Vermont (May 9 – Oct. 25, 2026)
Exhibition at the Shelburne Museum in northern Vermont features highlights from the Garthwaite Family Collection of Vermont samplers. Curated by Katie Wood Kirchhoff, the exhibition includes alphabet samplers, needlework pictures, family registers, memorials and other forms of schoolgirl art. The Vermont Sampler Initiative documented the Garthwaite collection and collaborated on this exhibition. For more information go to: https://shelburnemuseum.org/exhibition/on-point-needlework-from-the-garthwaite-family-collection/
American Girlhood: Needlework, Memory, and the Making of a Nation
Webb Deane Stevens Museum, Wethersfield, Connecticut (May 1 – December 31, 2026)
Exhibition of samplers and needlework pictures at the Webb Deane Stevens Museum, guest-curated by Emily Whitted with collaboration from Stephen & Carol Huber. This exhibition brings together more than fifty examples of schoolgirl art drawn from public and private collections across the country. Together the embroideries trace the rich legacy of girls’ needlework in America from the 18th to mid -19th centuries, documenting the educational, artistic, practical, and deeply personal efforts of generations of girls and young women.
Peapods and Gillyflowers
Wollaton Hall, Nottingham, England (May 23 – Nov. 1, 2026)
On display at Wollaton Hall, Nottingham, England is an exhibition of outstanding Tudor embroideries from the Lord Middleton Collection. The exhibition, titled “Peapods and Gillyflowers”showcases fourteen items from his collection, each made between 1580 and 1650. The embroideries are covered with motifs from nature – the flowers, herbs, vegetables, insects and animals that were a popular feature of late 16th and 17th century English embroidery.
UPCOMING LECTURES
‘For her much respected parents:’ Samplers by Black Girls in Philadelphia
Lecture August 16, 2026 by Dr. Lynne Anderson, EGA Virtual Lecture Series, 1:00 pm ET
Dr. Lynne Anderson uses the presence of needlework instruction to trace and interpret the educational opportunities in Philadelphia for free and enslaved black girls. Through the lens of known and recently discovered samplers stitched by girls of African descent, she explores the educational options that emerged and the factors that motivated families within the city’s extensive free black community to pursue an education for their daughters.
Civic Stitches: Early American Needlework and National Identity
Lecture September 10, 2026 by Emily Whitted, Webb Dean Stevens Museum, 6:30 – 8:00 pm ET (in person and via zoom)
Lecture by Emily Whitted, guest-curator of the exhibition American Girlhood: Needlework, Memory, and The Making of a Nation, exploring the larger history of needlework as part of early American education for girls. In the aftermath of the American Revolution, female education was a critical space for civic development, and needlework was one educational medium in which girls processed their own identities within the new nation. Tickets $10 for members, $15 for nonmembers.