Skip to content

Projects

The Sampler Consortium International sponsors and supports a range of research,  preservation, promotion, and publication projects focused on antique samplers and needlework pictures from around the world.  In addition to the projects described below, the Sampler Consortium International anticipates the opportunity to support exciting new project collaborations in the future.

Sampler Archive Project 

The Sampler Consortium International supports the Sampler Archive Project, a nation-wide endeavor designed to locate, photograph, and document all known American samplers, making the information and images available to the public in an easily searchable online database. Its work with museums, historical societies, dealers, auction houses, libraries, and collectors has led to the location and documentation of nearly 7000 American samplers.  The Sampler Archive Project also works with local teams to locate, photograph, and document samplers in public and private collections within their state or county. A successful component of this process process is conducting “Sampler Identification and Documentation Days” (Sampler ID Days) where public and private collectors bring their samplers to a central location, where it is then photographed and documented by trained volunteers. These geographically specific initiatives also disseminate information about their findings, and collaborate with local organizations to curate and host sampler exhibitions. To date there have been four geographically focused sampler initiatives aligned with the Sampler Archive Project.

Future Projects 

Publications

The Sampler Consortium International is interested in collaborating with authors and organizations to produce articles, books, monographs, and exhibition catalogs that promote the dissemination of scholarly information about needlework samplers and related girlhood embroideries. 

Past collaborations have supported the conceptualization, design, authorship, and printing of  geographically focused exhibitions and accompanying catalogs or books. We anticipate that future publications will result from these and other types of collaborative efforts.

The following books and exhibition catalogs were produced with support from the Sampler Consortium. For more information, please see BOOKS/PUBLICATIONS. To purchase any of these books, please visit the STORE.

  • Embroidered Lives: South County Samplers and Their Stories, by Lynne Anderson (2025)
  • Wrought with Careful Hand: Ties of Kinship on Delaware Samplers, by Lynne Anderson and Gloria Seaman Allen (2014)
  • Columbia’s Daughters: Girlhood Embroidery from the District of Columbia, by Gloria Seaman Allen (2012)
  • Samplers International: A World of Needlework by Lynne Anderson (2011)

Sampler Preservation and Conservation

With funds donated for this purpose, the Sampler Consortium International will be launching a project designed to support sampler owners and collectors in the care of their antique needlework. As currently envisioned, the Sampler Preservation and Conservation project will be a three pronged effort to (a) provide information to sampler owners about proper care techniques and materials; (b) provide up-to-date information about textile conservators knowledgeable and experienced in working with antique samplers and needlework pictures; and (c) provide financial assistance to support the preservation and conservation of girlhood embroideries scheduled for display in an exhibition. More details will be included here soon.