HAVERHILL, MASSACHUSETTS MEMORIAL NEEDLEWORK SAMPLER, silk on linen, six alphabet and numeral rows segmented by decorative stitching above two four-row verses, lower half with an oval vignette of two funerary urns under a willow tree within an embroidered landscape, one reserve signed "Wrought by / Oliv[i]a Hoyt / A[ged] 14 / 1819" and the other reserve reads "To the / memory of / Wm Hoyt / died ma[y] 24 / 18[0]7", two sides with finely executed geometric borders, top edge with tree border, and lower edge with sawtooth and plain borders. Housed under UV glass in a modern frame. Dated 1819. 19 3/8" x 21 3/4" sight, 23 1/4" x 25 1/2" OA.
Very good overall condition with some losses to thread on lettering in memorial reserves, some losses and breaks to thread in outer sawtooth border to three edges, light fading and fugitive color to some thread, frame with minor wear. Not examined out of frame.
Provenance: From the collection of Nick Routson, Phoenix, AZ.Susie & Richie Burmann, Ohio/New Hampshire.M. Finkel & Daughter.
Catalogue Note: Olivia Hoyt was born on April 11,1805 in Haverhill, Essex Co., MA to parents William Hoyt (1778-1807) and Mehitable Swasey (b. 1780). Being memorialized in this sampler, her father was a shipwright and drowned "with 5 other persons" including Joshua Weed in the Merrimac River. Olivia married John Waldo (1802-1834) of Orange Co., VT and they had two children. She is recorded in the 1880 U.S. Federal Census for Washington, DC as living with her daughter and son-in-law, Helen Waldo and Col. James Oliver Perry Burnside, in house no. 937, dwelling no. 226, and family no. 244. Olivia died on September 6, 1880 and is buried at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, DC.

Very good overall condition with some losses to thread on lettering in memorial reserves, some losses and breaks to thread in outer sawtooth border to three edges, light fading and fugitive color to some thread, frame with minor wear. Not examined out of frame.