Until the end of the 19th century, how to sew and how to embroider were the staples of a young girl's education. Dozens of stitches needed to be learned and the best way to teach them all was by use of the sampler.
In the next of our series on the history of needlework, Dorothy Phelan, the curator of the Point of the Needle exhibition at the Dorset County Museum, takes Jennifer Chevalier on a tour of samplers from the 18th century to the present day. Dorothy Bromiley Phelan, The Point of the Needle: Five Centuries of Samplers and Embroideries, The Dovecote Press, ISBN: 1 874336 97 0, £6.95
