The sampler has nine rows of alphabets and numbers separated by rows of differing stitchery. In the lower left is the verse, adapted from two lines from Sir Walter Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel", (Canto Sixth, section XI) and reads:
The sun rose fair on carlisle wall.
For love was lord of all.

The signature line reads:
Ann A. Guthrie. Age 11 Dec. 30. 1837.

Ann Augusta Guthrie was born on January 14, 1825, in Louisville, Kentucky. Her father, James Guthrie (b. 5 Dec 1792, d. 13 Mar 1869), was thirty-two years old, and her mother, Eliza Churchill Prather Guthrie (b.24 Nov 1799, d. 25 Jul 1836) was twenty-five.

James Guthrie was involved in transporting merchandise to New Orleans. In 1812, he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1817 and commenced to practice law in Bardstown, Kentucky. He was appointed Commonwealth Attorney in 1820, a member of the Kentucky State House of Representatives, and a member of the Kentucky State Senate. In addition, he was a railroad builder, president of the Louisville Nashville Railroad Company, president of the Louisville-Portland Canal Company and founder-president of the University of Louisville. In 1853, he was appointed the 21st Secretary of the Treasury by President Franklin Pierce, serving until 1857. During the Civil War, he resisted federal pressure to nationalize the Louisville Nashville Railroad, but allowed the Union to use it to move troops and supplies. After the war, he was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate, serving from 1865 to 1868. He died shortly after leaving the Senate from a stroke at age seventy-six. He is buried at Cave Hill Cemetery, Section B, Lot 1, Louisville, Kentucky with his wife Eliza. Her obituary is worthwhile reading:
“Died.
At the residence of John Churchill, Esq., in Hardin County, on Monday, the 25th ultimo, Mrs. ELIZA C. GUTHRIE, in the 37th year of her age, late consort of James Guthrie, Esq., of this city.

Thus in the meridian of life and usefulness, the kind and indulgent mother, the devoted and affectionate wife, the warm and disinterested friend, has been forced to separate herself from all her earthly ties. Nor were they limited in their extent - - a host of relations, of whom she was the pride and ornament, mourn in her loss a deep and severe dispensation, and those connected with her in the social circle, will not easily fill the chasm occasioned by her death, with one possessed of so many shining and brilliant qualities of the head and heart, The poor have lost in her, one whose heart was ever ready to sympathize with sorrow, and whose hand was always open to relieve distress. - - But as it was in the domestic circle that her fine qualities of mind were chiefly exercised, so in it, is the affliction most keenly felt. Her devotion to the present improvement, and future welfare of her three daughters, formed her chief enjoyment, and excited her most anxious solicitude. To that great object, she lent all the energies of her powerful mind, and though it has not been her happiness to enjoy at maturity the fruit of her exertions in the education of her children, she lived long enough to know that she had not devoted herself in vain. May the recollection of her virtues stimulate them to the performance of those, in which she so much excelled.

But it is to the husband, that this affliction comes home most keenly - - In his condition, death has perfected its desolation; has left a wound for which there is no balm. His great consoler and comforter in all other sorrows is removed, and in silence he is compelled to hear that grief, for which there are so few condolements. The hall is deserted - - the hearth is desolate, the joyous smile which used to greet him at his home is gone. But let him be consoled to some extent, in this deep and unwonted affliction, by the knowledge of the almost universal sympathy which his fellow citizens feel for the sorrows of one, of whom they have so many reasons to be proud.”
- - The Louisville Daily Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), Thursday, August 4, 1836, p. 2.

Please see the ancillary images from Cave Hill Cemetery.

Ann had two sisters (Sarah Julia Guthrie Smith, b.1827, d.1901, Mary Elizabeth Guthrie Caperton, b. 1823, d. 1901)

Ann Augusta Guthrie married William Beverly Caldwell, MD (b. 3 April 1818, d. 19 May 1892). Ann had at least nine siblings born between 1849 and 1866: Ann Eliza Caldwell (1849-1900), William Beverly Caldwell, Jr, (1851-1880), George Alfred Caldwell (1853-1864), James Guthrie Caldwell, Sr (1855-1926), Lawrence/Laurence Smith Caldwell (1857-1880), Augusta Guthrie Caldwell (1859-1930), Jennie Caldwell (1864-?), Junius C. Caldwell (1864-1931) and Mary Phoebe Caldwell (1866-1935).

Ann Augusta Guthrie died on January 8, 1872, in her hometown at the age of forty-six, and was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery, Section B, Lot 2, Louisville, Kentucky. The Caldwell plot in Cave Hill is adjacent to the Guthrie plot and this author drives by them monthly to visit his father’s grave.