Needlework Sampler
Cromarty Courthouse Museum

This is a lovely example of a needlework sampler. In their earliest form, samplers were put together as personal reference works for embroiderers: trials of patterns and stitches which had been copied from others, records of particular effects achieved which could be recreated again.  

Samplers were used locally in schools to teach girls to sew and practise the different types of stitches.  

We know that this piece was worked by a young girl called Katherine Thomson in Cromarty. It dates from the first half of the nineteenth century and depicts a common theme of Adam and Eve with the serpent and apple. However, this sampler is not dated and this creates a problem as there were two girls called Katherine Thomson in Cromarty during that period! Where samplers do include dates, they can be useful resources for people trying to trace family histories.