Few objects document the role of young American women from the last quarter of the eighteenth century through the first half of the nineteenth century as well as needlework samplers. Samplers came into being during the early Renaissance in convents and courts of Europe as an integral element in the education of young women. Rare seventeenth-century samplers from New England bear strong similarities to English models. By the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, however, American samplers came to display their own distinct regional styles. Under the guidance of skilled schoolteachers, girls stitched samplers—which featured letters, numbers, moral verses and maxims, and pictorial elements—to practice and demonstrate needlework skills; among other lessons, this was intended to prepare them for future domestic duties.

This sampler is inscribed "Hannah Staples, born September the 14, 1776" and dated 1791. Records from Cumberland County, Maine, cite two women named Hannah Staples. One of these, christened September 10, 1776, was the daughter of David and Lucy Staples of Yarmouth. The second and the more likely creator of this sampler was the daughter of Benjamin and Rebechah Staples; she was born on September 10, 1776, in Cumberland Town (now Cumberland). The apparent four-day discrepancy probably arises from the often imprecise nature of these records. The Museum collection contains another sampler by Staples, undated and with fewer design elements. Unfortunately, neither the teacher's name nor the school where the samplers were made is known.

Lee Kogan, "Hannah Staples Sampler," in Stacy C. Hollander, American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 302.