On Wednesday 10 April 2020 Gillian Vogelsang wrote:
Even though the TRC Leiden is currently closed, this does not mean that donations for the TRC Collection have ceased! This week some items have been arriving at my home, including the generous donation of a large number of samplers that were given by Betteke Boele-Vogelesang (no relation). We would like to thank her for the donation and for feeling the TRC Leiden is a suitable home for the collection she spent many years building up and enjoying.
School sampler from Amersfoort, The Netherlands, dated 1900 (TRC 2020.1599).
Among the items in the donation are over fifty school samplers, which date from the 1860’s to the 1920’s. They are small samplers that have the alphabet and numbers, and often the name or initials of the maker, their school and a date. The samplers in the Boele-Vogelesang collection come from various countries, including Belgium, England, Germany, France, the Netherlands and possibly Spain. Among the Dutch examples are pieces from Amersfoort, Amsterdam, Schagen and Utrecht. In addition there are several Berlin wool work-style samplers from the 1860’s and 1870’s, as well as sewing samples, darning samples and hand knitted samples (including some very small socks).
One of the school samplers (TRC 2020.1606) is particularly colourful and deserves extra attention. It comes from the village of Burton Leopard in North Yorkshire (near Ripon) in England. It was made by a girl called Jane Hardy, who went to Burton Leopard primary school (a Church of England school; the school and building are still extant). She worked the sampler in 1872 when she was ten years old.
A school sampler worked in 1872 by Jane Hardy, aged ten, at the village of Burton Leonard, Yorkshire (TRC 2020.1606).We are now in contact with the school and in particular with Vivienne Rivis, a local historian who works with the school. Because the school is closed due to the corona virus, they are looking for ‘online detective’ projects for the older children. So the children are going to check the scanned school records from the 1860’s and 1870’s to find out more details about Jane Hardy, as well as look for more details concerning who taught needlework in the school and what was life in the school like in the 1870’s. In addition, a chart of the colourful sampler is being produced for younger children to turn into embroideries or to inspire colourful drawings!
All of the Boele-Vogelesang pieces are being processed at the moment and will be online shortly. In addition, more details about various aspects of this collection will be put made available in the form of individual blogs, reports from the school in Yorkshire, as well as an online exhibition on the same theme. Interesting days ahead!
