This is an alphabet sampler with strawberry and vine border with uppercase on the first line “A through W”, second line has “XYZ” followed by lowercase “a through z”, third line has uppercase cursive “A through N”, fourth line reads uppercase cursive “O through Z”, fifth line has uppercase “A through N”, sixth line has uppercase “O through Z". The lettering is divided by decoratively stitched lines and the alphabet letters are followed by her signature:
Margaretta W. Gant’s Sampler Wrought
in her 13th year while under the tuition of
Mrs. Lotspeich. April the 21st 1847

Below the signature are four large stitched flowers and a central building. The building is flanked on the left by the verbiage:
Sarah A. Means
Juliet E. Washan
Forget me not

To the right of the building is embroidered:
1234567
89101112X
Remember me

The building is a two story house with nine windows, having two chimneys; stitched at the base of the house is the word, HOME. It is unclear if this was intended to represent the dwelling of the Gant family, situated in town on Main Street, or a fictitous representation.

Related objects include the sampler of Margaretta’s sister, Jane Gant, which is in the MESDA Collection.

In 1856, Margaretta Gant married John C. “Posey” Glass (1828-1893) and they ran a successful farm, commercially growing corn, wheat, and tobacco. Her younger sister, Jane Ellen Gant, married a cousin of Margaretta’s husband, James M. Glass (1828-1904).

The Gant sisters’ samplers were worked “under the tuition of” Nancy (Western) Lotspeich (1803-1889). Design motifs on both works are similar, chiefly alphabets, and a strawberry and vine border on Margaretta’s and a flower bud and leaf border on Jane’s. Their composition’s include their names, age, date, and their teacher, Mrs. Lotspeich. Margaretta’s sampler includes the names of two friends, Sarah A. Means (b.1839) and Juliet E. Woshan (1836-1894) along with the statement “Forget me not” and “Remember me”.

Nancy Western married David Lotspeich in Christian County, Kentucky in 1819. She was widowed in 1832 with six children to support. She continued to teach in Kentucky for more than thirty years. Nancy is noted in the 1880 census living in Amite City, Louisiana with her daughter, also widowed and teaching school. She died on December 13, 1889 and is buried in Louisiana.
Two additional samplers that were stitched “under the tuition of” Nancy Lotspeich are known to survive. The sampler of Elizabeth Ann White (1836-1918) is in the collection of the Customs House Museum in Clarksville, Tennessee. It is almost identical to the sampler stitched by Jane Ellen Gant also in 1848. The earliest surviving example from this sampler group is in the collection of the Speed Museum in Louisville, Kentucky (acc.2014.4). Stitched by the daughter of Nancy Lotspeich, Mary Magdalene Lotspeich (1832-1904) in 1843, it features a three-story red brick house which is named “Mount Vernon”. It includes a quote on friendship from the poet and author, Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774) as well as her name, age, date, and the inclusion of “under the tuition of her mother”.

Margaretta Waller Gant (1834-1914) and her sister Jane Ellen (1836-1894) were the daughters of Archibald Gant (1789-1854) and Rebecca (Kinkead) Gant (1801-1874). Archibald was a hatter, widely known as “Gant, the Hatter” famous for creating a $10 rabbit hat that was said to “last a man a lifetime”. Around 1844 he started the mercantile business of “Kinkead and Gant” with his brother-in-law.