Bed Numbers, Reversed Ns, All the Wonder of the Mueller Girls

As there are a number of Bristol Orphanage samplers in the Micheál and Elizabeth Feller Collection, I wanted to find a good photo to go with them, and you can see what I turned up below. These are astonishing samplers in their meticulousness and sheer industriousness. Did you know that some of them incorporate the stitcher's bed numbers? Sometimes she would be moved around and would have more than one bed number. One of the enduring motifs on these samplers is the anchor - signifying hope. And below you can see it on the wall of their room. Look a little more carefully and you can see that the N in Pary a Little Oftener is reversed. Just how confusing to a girl can that be? We blame the girls, sometimes blame the teacher for not correcting the girl, but maybe after all the teacher was the one who was confused! For more very interesting pictures in the Mueller Archive, just click here.