Lucy Harris

The many fine genealogy samplers made in Portland, Maine have been studied by scholars in the field for many years, beginning with the article “Samplers and silk embroideries of Portland, Maine” by Betty Ring, published in The Magazine Antiques in September 1988. Described as, “an extraordinary group of distinctive samplers [worked] during the first quarter of the nineteenth century,” Betty writes about the boldly titled GENEALOGY samplers on which the samplermakers listed a record of family information and surrounded the composition with borders of rode and vine borders. These samplers were made at a number of different schools; one was that of Misses Mayo, which Betty documented in this article, illustrating Lucy Harris’ sampler as Figure 1. The sampler is signed, “Wrought by Lucy Harris aged 10 years / at the School of the Miss Mayo’s / Portland Octr 30th 1817.” A copy of this article is included in the file of research that accompanies this sampler. 

The Mayo school was recognized and applauded in town histories as early as 1888, when an article published as part of the City of Portland 29th Annual Report mentioned, in the section on The Schools of Portland, that, “The Misses Mayo also taught a successful school for girls. They were celebrated for their skill in exquisite needlework, both plain and ornamental.” 

Along with the school, much is known about Lucy’s father, Mark Harris (1779-1843). He was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts and had removed to Portland, Maine in 1800; in 1801, he married Ruth Wheeler in Portland. He was a member of the Massachusetts State Senate in 1816 and was elected to the Seventeenth Congress as well as to the Maine House of Representatives in 1830. He also served as Maine Treasurer in 1828 and again in 1832–1834. Lucy remained single and died in Massachusetts in 1878. 

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