Arletta C. Sturgis
age 7, Brooklyn
New York, circa 1830
Signed, “Arletta C. Sturgis’s Work Aged 7 Years Brooklyn May 17th,” this was likely Arletta’s first sampler. She worked the alphabet in five different fonts and, below her inscription, the first two lines of a classic sampler verse.
Arletta was born in 1823. On October 24, 1843, she married John Lockwood Quimby (1818-1882) in Brooklyn and, interestingly, the marriage was officiated by “his Honor the Mayor.” Arletta and John remained in Brooklyn and had 7 children. Census records show that John was a tobacconist. Arletta died in 1890 and is buried along with family members in Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Worked in silk on linen, the sampler is in excellent condition and has been conservation mounted into a later frame.