Summary
Sampler made by Mary Smith (later Spencer) and brought out to Australia in 1842, it travelled with her by bullock cart to Iron Bark and Mt Abundance.
Mary Spencer gave the sampler and a wooden doll to her daughter Manyanna, who cherished them all her long life. When she died in 1926 various family members possessed them until they were acquired by the Museum in 1988.
Physical Description
This sampler belongs with wooden doll No. 88.534.2. Unbleached linen square decorated with simple floral and line border. Alphabet in capitals and lower case, numbers 1-8 embroidered in top panel. Central panel flanked by tree, dog and insect motifs.
More Information
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Collecting Areas
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Acquisition Information
Purchase
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Maker
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Place & Date Used
New South Wales, Australia, 1842
Mary brought the sampler with her when she migrated from England. -
Inscriptions
Text: In Books or Work or Healthful Play/Let my firft years be paft Day/That I may give for ev'ry/Some good Account at laft/ Mary Smith/Moulton June/1820.
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Classification
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Category
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Discipline
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Type of item
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overall dimensions
32.6 cm (Length), 30.2 cm (Width)
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Exhibition Collection Management
326 mm (Length), 302 mm (Width)
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References
The Smith/Spencer family archives are held at the Oxley Library, Brisbane; other family memorabilia may have been donated to the Queensland Museum. Susanna de Vries has a chapter on Mary Spencer's daughter in her book Females on the Fatal Shore (2009) but with no reference to the archives in Queensland or the MV holdings.
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Keywords
