Lot 216: Spring Hill Academy Tennessee Sampler 1842

American schoolgirl needlework sampler by Lucy Ann Reid, Spring Hill TN Female Academy, 1842, silk thread on linen ground. Cross stitched double vine and blossom borders enclosing two alphabets (one rendered in box stitch) and a row of numbers, divided by satin stitch sawtooth borders, a vine and blossom border, and decorations of flowering baskets, over a verse: “Jesus permit thy gracious name to stand / engraven by an infant hand / As I my finger oor the canvass move / inspire my bosom with thy love.” Cartouche lower center signed “Lucy Ann Reid aged 9 / Spring Hill Female Academy /  Nov. 15, 1842” within a geometric border. Later molded wood frame, under glass. Sampler: 17 in H x 16 3/4 in W. Frame: 21 in H x 20 1/2 in W. Note: this sampler has been documented by the Tennessee Sampler Survey, which notes that Lucy Reid was born Feb. 16, 1832 in either Tennessee or North Carolina. Her parents, William Buchanon Reid and Ede Harris Brown, moved to Macon in Fayette County, Tennessee by 1834. Spring Hill Female Academy on the border of Williamson and Maury Counties was likely the closest site for her to receive educational instruction. Lucy Reid married Edmond Madison Waller in 1851. He served as a private in the Confederate Army (13th Tennessee Infantry) and was killed at the Battle of Stones River Dec. 31, 1862. Lucy herself and their son do not appear in any records after that, although their three daughters lived to adulthood. A packet of genealogy information on Lucy Reid accompanies this lot. 

PROVENANCE: Private West Tennessee Collection. 

CONDITION: Sampler has been recently framed and affixed with stitches (not glue) to a tan linen backing, minimizing some wear, losses and holes that have occurred to ground in the area between verses (likely along fold lines) and to both ground and thread on the word “gracious.” Some losses to pale thread forming the sawtooth borders between alphabets. 1/4 inch hole lower left corner. Some staining to border especially at lower left corner and upper left edge. General fading.