Nancy Elderkin was born 1784. She made the sampler in 1793 when she was just a tender nine years old.

The appraisal was done complementary for the chapter by Liverant and Son of Colchester Connecticut. The appraisal was worth $1500 dollars but Nathan Liverant waived his fee because he likes the work the DAR does. Fair market value is $2500 and should be insured for $4500. Liverant and Son worked for the Antiques Roadshow in 1998. They have been in business for more than 100 years.

The sampler is a federal silk on linen schoolgirl needle work sampler. This sampler shows some stylistic connection to the schools for young women operating in Norwich, Connecticut at the time during Nancy's youth. Subtle yet important connections between Nancy's sampler and a Lucy Coit sampler of the time is an unusual slant Greek key design found after the Z in Lucy's upper alphabet and below Nancy's lower partial alphabet. Also located in the center of Lucy's sampler is a group of flowering plants with straight stocks, Nancy used a similar group of plants with rigid straight stocks and a variety of flowers. Nancy uses a design comprised of a three part flower resembling a tulip, similar tulips are found in Lucy's sampler near the bottom and just above a strawberry plant. Another element shared by Lucy Coit and Nancy Elderkin is the eyelet stitch where the needle passes through the same hole several times. This challenging stitch is found on the bottom uppercase alphabet made by Nancy and the top uppercase alphabet made by Lucy.

Nancy Elderkin's great, great grandfather was John Elderkin II. The very same man is Jedidiah Elderkin's grandfather. It is certain that Nancy would have known of her cousin Jedediah's significant accomplishments. As Nancy went on in life, she married Edward Wright, and had four children. Her second child's name was Horatio Gouverneur Wright born in 1820. Horatio was a Brigadier General in the Union Army during the Civil War, striking as Jedidiah Elderkin was also a Brigadier General only during the revolutionary war. Horatio also carried the job title of a U.S. Engineer. Among his notable accomplishments was his work on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1868/1869 and his work on the Washington Monument between 1879 and 1884.

Last, but definitely not least in this list of lncredibles for our sampler we found some fun news that the donor of the special piece of history is none other than the aunt of our librarian's grandmother. A. H. Maine aka Estelle Parkhurst, Maine was the Aunt of Miriam Barstow Abbe. Miriam Abbe is Sue Abbe's grandmother. Just incredible!

The lions share of this research that I have documented as fun facts about our sampler goes to Kevin Tullimeri of Liverant and Son. Linda Bouchard and Sue Abbe researched how the chapter became the lucky recipient of this incredible sampler and who donated it.

3/21/2026
Linda Bouchard
Anne Wood Elderkin Chapter Historian