Pennsylvania German Motif Sampler by Amanda Deischer
This is a needlework sampler by Amanda Deischer. The image was sent to me by Amy Finkel of Samplings, an antique sampler and needlework dealer, of Philadelphia (thanks, Amy!).
This is what she had to say about the sampler:
It’s a classic Pennsylvania German motif sampler and the handsome red and blue silk on crisp white linen was used by 19th century samplermakers in this community as well. After it’s framed it will be added to our Current Selections in January.
~Amy
According to the National Museum of American History, samplers were the method by which young women, not only learned basic needlework skills, but also showed off these skills to prospective mates. As such, they are an artifact that provides insight into the education of girls in American society during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
“The emergence of large numbers of these samplers has resulted in much research in diaries, account books, letters, newspaper ads, local histories, and published commentary that is helping to illuminate the lives of women in early America.”1
It appears that Amanda stitched this sampler in 1852. The year appears at the end of the second row of needlework. She would have been approximately 18 or 19 years old, depending on the exact date of the work.2 I recognize the images as classic Pennsylvania Dutch motifs. German was spoken at home in my mother’s family into the 1940s. I’ve seen evidence in some of my family lines that it was the primary language more than 100 years after those families had settled in Pennsylvania. It would not surprise me at all to learn that Amanda’s family was the same.
Amanda Deischer was the daughter of Peter Deischer (1793-1861) and Anna Maria Trump (1792-1874) of Hereford Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania. She was born 17 June 1833 and died at the young age of 23 on 17 October 1856. She was buried at Zion’s Evangelical Lutheran Church cemetery in Zionsville, Upper Milford Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.
Amanda’s older sister Judith married Joseph Snyder, son of Henry and Sarah (Wißler) Schneider, about 1852 or so. They were my 4x great grandparents.