Harriet M. Bryan

The town of Washington in Litchfield County, Connecticut was formed in 1779, with lands carved from nearby towns of Woodbury, Litchfield, Kent, and New Milford. It was named after George Washington, of course. The Bryan family had been in Connecticut since the 17th century and is well documented in Alexander Bryan of Milford, Connecticut his Ancestors and Descendants by C. C Baldwin (Cleveland, Ohio, 1889). Harriet M. Bryan was born in Washington in 1816/17, the daughter of Alexander and Minerva (Hartnell) Bryan. Her sampler is signed, “Harriet M. Bryans Sampler Wrought by her in the summer of 1828 aged 11 years.” She used beautiful eyelet stitches in all upper-case letters to form the name of her town, likely an indication of civic pride that townspeople had in the name of their town. 

Harriet’s instructress was probably Miss S. Gunn who is documented in New England Samplers to 1840, by Glee Krueger (Old Sturbridge Village, 1978). Miss Gunn was named as the teacher on another sampler made in Washington, in 1823.

Harriet married Daniel Clark Logan and then after his death in 1857, Alanson Burgess. She died in 1888 and is buried in Washington Cemetery On The Green.

The sampler was worked in silk on linen and is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a molded and black painted frame.