Rare Needlework Sampler, mary Snodgrass, attributed to Leah Bratten Galligher, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, dated 1802

Worked in silk, hair, coiled metal and paint in gauze over linen with green silk ribbon; signed Mary Snodgrass was born in Philadelphia August 13 A.D. 1787 And made this Sampler in Harrisburg in the year of our Lord 1802, in the upper right quadrant.



Some stain and discoloration.

Mrs. William Allison, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, october, 28, 1984.

American Needlework Treasures: Samplers and Silk Embroiders from the Collection of Betty Ring at the Museum of American Folk Art (p. 46, fig. 78)

Carol and Stephen Huber, The Sampler Engagement Calendar and Reference Guide, 1993, number 23.

Some stain and discoloration; frame not original.
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Mary's sampler belongs to an important group worked in the Susquehanna Valley (Lancaster, York, and Dauphin Counties) between 1797 and 1838. These pieces are characterized by decorative, compartmented borders surrounding long inscriptions or pictorial motifs, and by the mid-1820s, similar central designs had heavy floral borders. This sampler is attributed to the school of Leah Bratten Galligher (1764- 1830), and it reveals that she moved from Lancaster to Harrisburg shortly after her divorce from Francis Galligher in March 1802. She soon married Isaac Meguier, and a related sampler names Leah Meguier's School, Harrisburg 1806. Mary Snodgrass (1787-1853), a daughter of the Presbyterian minister James Snodgrass (1763-1846) and Martha Davis (1760-1828) of Hanover, was married to Samuel Bell (1776-1855) , in 1811, and they had three children. Bell was the Presbyterian pastor in St. George's and Pencader, Delaware, from 1809 until 1833 and then opened a female seminary in Newark, Delaware. An 1835 sampler from his school is in the Winterthur Museum (see the Delaware Antiques Show catalogue, 1985, p. 57).