WROUGHT BY MARTHA JANE FOWLER, PORTSMOUTH NH, DATED 1835

Martha Jane Fowler was born on March 22, 1822, to Paul Fowler, a Portsmouth joiner, and Phebe. Betty Ring notes that, "Martha Jane's instructress drew an elegant version of the house and barn pattern, with the principal elements of earlier work" (Girlhood Embroidery (New York, 1993), p. 242). This needlework is similar in both composition and execution to one done by Caroline Vaughn at Mary Waldens School in 1818, illustrated in Girlhood Embroidery, fig. 276, and in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Since none of the known samplers from Miss Waldens' school list the Portsmouth location, as Martha Jane has reflected in her signature and seen on other examples from the schools of Elizabeth S Smith's School or Mary Ann Smiths School, it is likely that Martha Jane attended one of the Misses Smiths' schools.