Page - 106 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/01

106 | Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/1, 95–122 Indeed, Elizabeth Parker did not write this text. She embroidered the 6,530 letters in cross-stitch with red silk on piece of linen fabric measuring 85.8 cm by 74.4 cm. As noted above, the needlework is incomplete and the writing covers only about 60 percent of the cloth. The project may be incomplete, but the embroidery skills are outstanding: the stitches are regular and the letters well-designed. This sampler expresses Elizabeth’s fears and hopes in a tragic phase of her life but is also more generally an exceptional biographical document that provides evidence of the religious knowledge and devotion of a young working-class woman in a village in 19th-century England.20 Elizabeth Parker’s birth year (1813) stitched in the sampler is historically cor- rect, as are the names of her 10 siblings, and the information pertaining to her family, and the places she was employed as a servant. She did not in fact com- mit suicide while a young woman, but instead spent the remainder of her life in the village where she was born, dying on 10 April 1889, aged 76. Her father, William Parker (1780–1852), served as an agricultural labourer for different gen- erations of a noble family in the village of Ashburnham. The earl mentioned in the sampler was George Ashburnham (1797–1878). In this small village in East Sussex, there were two day schools: a public school that charged fees and a charity school sustained financially by the earl’s family. Elizabeth’s mother, Jane (née Winchester, 1784–1856), worked as a teacher in the latter school, where needlework was taught alongside subjects such as reading, writing, geogra- phy,21 mathematics, history, and music. Goggin notes: “According to a school report written by Jane Parker, students of all ages, from infancy up through their teens, were taught a variety of subjects including geography, math, his- tory, reading, writing, music, and needlework. Jane separated out for special notice music and needlework, saying that these ‘are [especially] well taught’”.22 Needlework was crucial for girls, who were expected to use their skills for marking clothing and sheets for the households in which they worked. Eliz- abeth, like her mother, became a teacher, and lived as a single woman in a 20 Browne/Wearden, 1999, 11; Goggin 2002, 39. 21 See Tyner 2018, 18. “Map samplers became popular at about the same time as dissected maps; they were not designed for amusement, but for instruction in both needlework and geography. However, map samplers undoubtedly arose for some of the same reasons as puzzles and games, especially as a way of combining geography instruction with other activities.” The increasing interest in geography that also led to the practice of embroidering map samplers mirrored the increasing interest in travel and discovery in modern Europe. 22 Goggin 2002, 43; she refers to the archive document East Sussex Records Office, Lewes, East Sussex ASH 1809.