Sampler

Born in 1830, Sarah Maria Hunt was, as her sampler details, the daughter of Samuel R. Hunt (born September 28, 1795) and Huldah P. Hunt (born April 10, 1794). Sarah later married Joshua A. Carter (also born in 1830). Sarah, her husband, and her mother are listed in the 1850 U.S. census as owners of a farm in western Michigan—in Keeler in Van Buren County. That census also states that all three were born in New Jersey. This is one of three samplers in the Gail-Oxford Collection stitched in wool rather than silk thread. According to needlework scholars Dan and Marty Campanelli, the trio-of-strawberries border, unconventional lions, pine trees, checkered pots with flowers, willows, and fruit trees all link this sampler to Hunterdon County traditions in the first half of the 19th century.