Medium Silk on linen or possibly hemp, mounted on c. 1820 homespun linen made by the Frazier Family with Algerian eye, cross, and four-sided stitches; thread count: 25/inch vertical, 27/inch horizontal
Description The sampler has eight rows of stitchery. It has silk thread on linen or possibly hemp, mounted on c. 1820 homespun linen made by the Frazier Family of Louisville, Kentucky. At the beginning of the top row, far left are the initials "AB" representing the sampler maker Annie Bullitt. At the end of the third row far right are the initials "PC" presumably representing Priscilla Christian, the sampler maker's grandmother, possibly the instructress of Annie.
There are two signature lines:
OB 9 APRIL 1786 AG 43 ("OB" is short for "obit/died", "AG" is short for "age")
W C A C 1781 {represents W(illiam) C(hristian) A(nnie) C(hristian) 1781 (marriage year)}
The sampler was mounted to the homespun linen, conservation mounted and framed by the current owner himself.
The sampler was made in 1793 by the owner's great-great-grandmother, Annie Christian Bullitt when she was seven years old. It memorializes her grandfather William Christian, who established an early settlement in Jefferson County, Kentucky along Beargrass Creek in 1780. The sampler documents his death April 9, 1786. Christian, at the age of forty-three "whilst in the act of dismounting, preparatory to firing, was mortally wounded by the fire of one of the Indians. Col. Christian lived long enough to be carried home to his own house where he expired." {"Collecting Kentucky 1790-1860", Geneviere Baird Lacer and Libby Turner Howard, 2013, pp.48-49 & Samuel W. Thomas, Oxmoor The Bullitt Family Estate Near Louisville, Kentucky Since 1787 (Louisville, KY: Butler), p. 27. & AKS personal correspondence with the owner}
The family and genealogical history of Annie Christian Bullitt and her direct descendant owner is far beyond the scope of this entry in AKS. Books have been written (and the most extensive genealogical research seen by AKS) documenting these historic Kentucky families.