When we think of American Thanksgiving, we picture tables filled with food, families gathering, and a moment to pause for appreciation. Long before printed greeting cards or themed decorations, many young stitchers recorded their own expressions of gratitude through samplers. These small pieces of embroidery give us a clear look at how early American families understood giving thanks, community, and the hope that each generation would carry those values forward.
Samplers were not just lessons in alphabets and numbers. They were lessons in virtue. Gratitude, charity, patience, and faith often appeared in stitched verses, chosen carefully by young girls or by their teachers. When you read these lines today, they are simple, but they reveal how children learned to see appreciation as part of daily life.
Let us look at how American stitchers used samplers to honor gratitude, thankfulness, and the spirit of Thanksgiving across the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Early American Samplers and Moral Instruction
When we look at American schoolgirl samplers from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, one feature appears again and again. Young makers stitched short verses that expressed praise, reflection, and a deep awareness of life’s blessings. These verses were not seasonal. They were part of the daily moral instruction expected in homes and schools, especially in New England, Pennsylvania, and the mid-Atlantic states.
In 1829, Salome Stemm of Germantown, Philadelphia County, stitched a Quaker “extract” sampler titled “Gratitude.” The verse she used begins “When all thy mercies O my God, my rising soul surveys, transported with the view I’m lost in wonder, love and praise,” from a well-known hymn of thanksgiving for God’s blessings. Her sampler includes a flowing vine border and floral motifs, and is discussed in a published sampler catalogue where it is explicitly labeled “Gratitude.”
Samplers taught reading, needlework, and character. Many included passages that encouraged humility, learning, kindness, and trust in divine care. These ideas were central to family life at the time, and the stitched words served as gentle reminders that each day offered something to be grateful for. Simple, direct, and heartfelt. These little lines give us a clear picture of how young girls were encouraged to recognize the good in their everyday surroundings.
Even before Thanksgiving became a national holiday in 1863, gratitude was a major theme in American religious life. Samplers often reflected this, and many included verses from psalms or well known hymns of appreciation. These were not seasonal sentiments. Gratitude was seen as a daily practice.
Common Themes of Praise and Blessing
Thanksgiving as an American holiday began regionally. New England communities held occasional days of thanks in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These were not annual events in most places, but they shaped the idea that gratitude could be expressed publicly.
By the early nineteenth century, more communities adopted annual days of gratitude in late autumn. Homes began to include small decorations or handmade tokens for the occasion.
Most verses came from well known hymns, psalms, or small moral poems found in schoolbooks. The language focused on:
• praise for guidance and protection
• appreciation for parents or teachers
• recognition of daily blessings such as home, health, and learning
• hope for a steady and principled life
One of the most frequently stitched hymns in early America was Joseph Addison’s “When all thy mercies, O my God.” Several documented samplers include lines from this text. Girls stitched it because teachers considered it appropriate for shaping character and reinforcing reflection on daily providence. It appears in collections held by regional historical societies and museums with known Quaker and Protestant school traditions.
Religious and Secular Expressions
By the time Thanksgiving became a national holiday through Lincoln’s proclamation in 1863, American girls had already stitched gratitude into their samplers for generations. After the proclamation, the theme grew even stronger.
Not all verses were religious. Many samplers praised learning itself. Short lines encouraged patience, attention, and steady work. Others honoured family by recording births, parents’ names, or small personal statements about contentment in the home.
These sentiments fit the values taught in female academies and small town schools. Teachers wanted their pupils to take pride in order, neatness, and gratitude for the chance to learn skills that would serve them throughout life. A sampler that praised learning or home life reflected these expectations. A stitched verse hanging on the wall reminded children of values long after the sampler maker had grown up and left the family home.
Some samplers went further and included family records. Births, marriages, and major events were recorded to honour the family’s history. These pieces often included a short line of thanks for “years together,” “happy times,” or “the blessings of this house.”
How the Practice Spread Across Early America
The strongest concentration of verse samplers appeared in New England, Pennsylvania, and the Chesapeake region. These areas had established schooling for girls earlier than many other parts of the country. As families moved westward, sampler traditions traveled with them. Even then, themes of praise and blessing remained constant.
In cities such as Philadelphia and Boston, needlework instruction often paired literacy with moral guidance. In rural areas, mothers or local teachers passed down the same patterns and verses. The result is a broad collection of American samplers that carry similar themes, even when the makers lived far from one another.
By the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, American samplers sometimes included small motifs connected to seasonal gratitude. These were not commercial holiday motifs as we see today, but quiet signs of the harvest season.
Common designs included:
• baskets overflowing with fruit
• sheaves of wheat
• autumn flowers such as asters or chrysanthemums
• squirrels or birds gathering food
• simple farm scenes
These small stitched images reflected the same ideas present in Thanksgiving gatherings. Families honoured the work of the harvest and the comfort it brought to the household. Motifs like these give us insight into what families valued and how young stitchers saw the world around them.
Samplers as Household Reminders
Completed samplers often hung in parlours or bedrooms. Families displayed them to show both skill and values. A verse about blessings or guidance was more than decoration. It served as a visible reminder to approach daily life with a steady and thankful spirit.
Many nineteenth century American homes kept one or more samplers visible for this purpose. The messages stitched by young hands helped shape family identity. These pieces were rarely tucked away. They stayed in sight for many decades.
Religious gratitude also remained strong. Many samplers featured short psalm lines about appreciation for daily bread or for the strength to meet life’s challenges. These were popular in New England and mid-Atlantic states where stitched verses had long been part of school instruction.
How Thanksgiving Themes Inspire Stitchers Today
Modern stitchers still feel a connection to these themes. Gratitude is timeless. Today we see new Thanksgiving designs that include pumpkins, turkeys, and warm autumn colours. These are cheerful and fun, but the older ideas remain close at hand.
Many stitchers still enjoy making pieces that honour family, friends, and cherished moments. A small stitched line about thanks, appreciation, or the joy of gathering together has the same meaning now as it did two hundred years ago.
You can also adapt old sampler verses into new work. Many stitchers enjoy taking a historic gratitude line and placing it inside a modern border or autumn motif. This brings together the past and present in a meaningful way.
Why Gratitude Still Matters in Our Needlework
Stitching itself encourages appreciation. You slow down, work with your hands, and pay attention to small details. Taking time to notice what you are thankful for feels natural when you sit with fabric and thread. Here's a wonderful new verse that you can add to any thanksgiving sampler:
“Let me be thankful all my days
For home, for help, for teacher’s ways.”
The young girls who stitched gratitude verses on their samplers often worked with fewer resources and heavier responsibilities than most of us today. Yet they made time to record what they valued. Their work reminds us that appreciation is not tied to circumstances. It is tied to awareness. When you stitch a few words of thanks into your own work, you connect with a long line of makers who honoured the same feelings.
Although modern stitchers have access to commercial seasonal patterns, many still appreciate the calm, thoughtful tone found in early American samplers. Short lines about blessings, home, or daily reflection remain popular because they speak to a timeless human need.
Stitchers who enjoy traditional work often adapt authentic verses from documented samplers. These are found in museum collections, auction catalogues, and regional historical society records. They bring a sense of history and sincerity to any new project, and they connect our own creative work to the women and girls who stitched before us.
(Sorry, I tried finding copyright free images that I could use but to no avail.)
Written by Thea Dueck: designer, teacher and founder of the Victoria Sampler. A professional needlework designer and a recognized authority in specialty stitches. She loves sharing the joy of samplers and specialty stitches. All images from www.freepik.com