Darning Sampler, 1810
“G. W.,” the Netherlands
Silk embroidery on cotton, 17 x 17 3/4 in. (43.2 x 45.1 cm)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York City, bequest of Gertrude M. Oppenheimer, 1981-28-238

This Dutch sampler was produced by its fourteen-year-old maker as a pedagogical exercise to showcase the darning skills that were essential for mending fabric items. Learning these skills was a rite of passage for young and adolescent girls in Europe and its colonies between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries; the damask darning demonstrated here, which replicates the appearance of woven fabrics, was favored in the predominantly Protestant Netherlands. This sampler highlights the role of craft in repair and systems of instruction that facilitated the transmission of these skills. As a document of gendered practice, it also speaks to social expectations surrounding repair labor that are inflected by gender distinctions.