Photographic exhibition of Irish Quaker Samplers

12 - 31 October 2022 (LexIcon, Level 3)

The sampler is a form of needlework found right across Europe. Before the advent of the sewing machine in the 1850s and the chain store, sewing was a vital part of the economy of a household, and also the commonest way in which women might find employment. Quakers were the first to set up schooling for girls in Ireland, and the sampler is a by-product of the large amount of classroom time devoted to sewing. Much of the work shown in this exhibition was executed by children between the ages of 6 and 12, and reveals training in a wide variety of stitches required for practical purposes from dress-making to darning and marking clothes.

Quakers believed in simplicity in all aspects of life from behaviour to dress. Generally made by girls in their free time, Irish samplers show a surprising degree of artistic exuberance in terms of colour and arrangement. They are often richly embellished with flowers and other decorative motifs. Many are alphabetical with letters in a variety of fonts, whilst some have poems or pieces of writing so perfectly executed that the untrained eye may think they have been printed. Geography was an important subject in Quaker schools and some samplers take the form of maps that have been over embroidered.

The panels in this exhibition show the range of work in Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries and look at it in terms of the social, domestic and educational context of Irish Quakerism. A final panel reminds us of the perishability of so many things of significance for the study of material culture and therefore of their importance to us today.

The items illustrated in the exhibition are in the collections of the Friends (Quaker) Historical Library Dublin.