Harriet Stevens, Celebrating Gen. Lafayett's Visit,
Kennebunk, Maine,
1825

Sampler size:
12½" x 16½"

Price: $6800

Enlarged and Printer Version

Very few samplers transcend typical schoolgirl work and commemorate important national events that affected the lives of their makers. Harriet Stevens, an eight-year-old living in the small coastal town of Kennebunk, Maine, worked her sampler to document and celebrate the historic visit of General Lafayette. By invitation of President Monroe and to great patriotic reception, Lafayette toured the United States for 16 months during 1824 and 1825.

The visit to Kennebunk lasted an afternoon, during which Gen. Lafayette was feted by the townspeople. The 1829 published account of this trip, Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825 by A. Levasseur, Secretary to General Lafayette During His Journey, indicates that the General and those with whom he traveled visited this town of about 2500 inhabitants on June 24, 1825. They were greeted by the sound of bells and artillery. The General was seated "on a chair elegantly decorated with flowers by the ladies of the town" and he was the subject of many toasts. He responded with his own tribute: "The village of Kennebunk, on the site of which the first tree was felled on the day in which the first gun was fired at Lexington, the signal of American and universal liberty! May that glorious date always be a pledge of the republican prosperity and increasing happiness of Kennebunk." It is certainly not surprising that this important day served as inspiration to a young schoolgirl.

By late that afternoon, the group traveled on to Saco, stayed overnight and then journeyed to Portland. The trip culminated with a 50th anniversary celebration of the Battle of Bunker Hill in Boston.

Harriet was born on July 18, 1817, the eldest daughter of a silversmith and jeweler, Phineas Stevens, and his wife Hannah Fairfield Stevens. Advertisements placed by Phineas Stevens in the Kennebunkport weekly paper indicate that he sold watches and clocks in addition to the wares he manufactured; he remained in business until at least 1850 in Kennebunk.

Harriet finished her sampler four months after Lafayette's visit, on October 26, 1825. She included various alphabets and surrounded the centered inscription with a vine of strawberries and leaves which is echoed by the side borders. The sampler was worked in linen on linen and is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a black painted frame.

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