The undated sampler has four rows of alphabets and numbers separated by simple crossbands. There are several simple motifs and the sampler is sewn to a cardboard backing with the signature line:
Florence Vail

Florence Cosby Vail was born on September 30, 1839, in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky when her father, Orasmus Merrill Vail (1806-1868), was thirty-three years old, and her mother, Marion Jones Martin Vail (1818-1868), was twenty-one. Florence had at least one sibling, Barker Flint Vail, (1852-1926) who owned the old Vail Homestead on Vail Road, Bennington, Vermont. (see ancillary image)

Florence married Walter Augustus Walbridge of Troy, New York on October 10, 1859, in Brooklyn, New York at Saint Peters Protestant Episcopal Church. Augustus Walbridge was a diamond dealer and resided at 52 Downing St., Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. They had five children in eighteen years including Joseph Boyd, (b. 8-6-1860, d. 12/25/1861), Florence Vail, (b. June 9, 1862, d. 1943), Augustus Merrill, (b. 12/23/1867, d. 1958), Marion Creighton, (b.8/29/1874, d ?1895?), and Blanche Homer, (b. 6/26/1879, d 6/30/1880).

After removing to New York and marrying Walter Augustus Walbridge, Florence made a second sampler in 1871 (see ancillary image). It measures 9 x 11 inches.

Florence Cosby Vail (Walbridge) died on June 10, 1927 of bronchopneumonia, in Brooklyn, New York, at the age of eighty-seven and was buried there in the Green-Wood Cemetery. (see ancillary image)