A lifetime of stitching
Historic needlework representing the lives and work of South Australian girls
In our latest Story from the stack, we unravel the rich history of needlework and the untold stories of South Australian girls.
Embroidery samplers are more than just records of sewing lessons – they are enduring testaments to the needlework skills young women honed in nineteenth century Australia. Beyond their delicate stitches lies a deeper narrative: one of unseen labour, resilience, and the countless hours women devoted to sewing, cleaning, cooking, washing, child-rearing, and other essential yet often overlooked work.
Through these intricate creations, we catch a glimpse of their lives, their struggles, and their quiet but vital contributions to their families and communities. In this story we explore the Hack Family collection.
As a child in the late 1850s, Annie Hack lived along the Coorong, the unceded lands and waters of the Ngarrindjeri people. Her father, William Hack, ran a family stock station on the coastal dunes at Parnka Point.
Ink drawing of cottage at Parnka Point, Charles Babbage, 18 June 1862. NLA: OJB-142686476-1
Ink drawing of cottage at Parnka Point, Charles Babbage, 18 June 1862. NLA: OJB-142686476-1
In 1860 when Annie was five, her mother Grace Hack (nee Stanlake), died whilst being rowed across the Coorong lagoon at night, in search of help for complications of childbirth.
Annie Hack was the great-great grandmother of author Lucy Treloar, who recounts this haunting journey in her prizewinning novel Salt Creek (2015) which is partially based on the Hack family experience of colonial life and the cross-cultural frontier.
A gift of embroidery
'For Annie, 1867'
Annie was born to William and Grace Hack in 1855, and started life at Finniss Flats, south-east of Adelaide, after which the family moved to the Coorong holding.
In 1865 Annie’s widower father married Emma Harding in Pinnaroo and soon after the whole family was living near Naracoorte.
Embroidery sampler, 'For Annie', Hack Family collection, 14 x 17.5 cm, 1867. SLSA PRG 456/24
Embroidery sampler, 'For Annie', Hack Family collection, 14 x 17.5 cm, 1867. SLSA PRG 456/24
The work is stitched on to a pre-punched cardboard support or ‘perforated card’, popular during the Victorian era. The holes in the cardboard guide the stitches, hence the very neat, uniform appearance of the stitches.
One wonders how this genteel sampler was received by Annie. She was known as a ‘wild’ teen who rode away on horseback to see the Aboriginal people she knew on the Coorong, who were dispossessed of their lands and fisheries by colonists, including Annie’s forebears (p 239, 280 of Chequered Lives).
The late Mrs A.C. Wagener, 'The News', Adelaide, Wednesday 11 March 1931, p. 6.ve
The late Mrs A.C. Wagener, 'The News', Adelaide, Wednesday 11 March 1931, p. 6.
Annie’s stepmother took on the five Hack children when she married William. Together they became parents to 11 more. Annie was 19 when she married builder August Wagener on 10 October 1874. She was mother to over 14 babies, and was a widow for 30 years, before dying at home on 9 March 1931, aged 76.
With such large families there must have been a constant need to be stitching.
Sewing, samplers & society
An embroidery ‘sampler’ was evidence of skills
Away from all that was familiar, people in the colonies needed to be self-reliant, which included making all their own clothes and linens by hand. Later, settlers would order clothes from their homeland, but they were delivered in pieces cut from the patterns as they needed to be adjusted for fit, still needing to be hand-sewn together.
Before sewing machines became widely available, most girls were taught to hand sew by female relatives, governesses or teachers. Women and girls even stitched whilst on the ship to their new home and taught younger girl passengers to sew.
Photograph of girls sewing at school, McLaren Vale, SA, 1910. SLSA: B 43429
Photograph of girls sewing at school, McLaren Vale, SA, 1910. SLSA: B 43429
As well as replicating domestic and social traditions from home, stitching was considered an essential skill for future wives and mothers and provided employment opportunities for women.
Girls would make an embroidery ‘sampler’ as evidence of their skill, and as a reference tool. A sampler might be framed and displayed to impress neighbours or be shown to a potential employer, like a portfolio.
A sampler traditionally consisted of a square or rectangular piece of backing fabric (called the 'ground') on which ‘bands’ (or rows) of various combinations and types of stitches were placed. These could be the alphabet, numbers, symbols and motifs, decorative borders, commonplace verse or religious scripture, the name, age and location of maker, and date it was made.
Some women brought their girlhood samplers with them to Australia, which suggests the emotional value placed on these objects.
Lillian White was one such lady. She had made this cross-stitch sampler in 1874 as a 6-year-old in Sussex, England and brought it with her when she migrated to Australia in 1908, as a married woman aged 39.
Lillian White, embroidery sampler, 31 x 20 cm, c. 1874. SLSA CLRC Toys Box 144
Lillian White, embroidery sampler, 31 x 20 cm, c. 1874. SLSA CLRC Toys Box 144
Lillian used a cream canvas and coloured wools with her piece bearing the common inscriptions of the alphabet in upper and lower case (repeated in ‘Gothic’ style lettering), a few numbers, and a decorative border of three rows of stitching. Lillian’s first initial and last name is stitched into the lower right-hand corner.
The back of Lillian White's, embroidery sampler. SLSA CLRC Toys Box 144
The back of Lillian White's, embroidery sampler. SLSA CLRC Toys Box 144
Lillian had married at age 19 to Alfred Taylor, 31, in Kent, and soon after their first son was born. By the time the family had migrated to Australia, Lillian had eight children. She died on 18April, 1940 in Brisbane when she was 70 years old.
Did you know that early Australian-made samplers are notably similar to, and sometimes indistinguishable from their British equivalents?
Unless there are key identifying features such as the inscription of an Australian location or clear provenance....
It is hard to tell whether a sampler was made in Australia or overseas.
A late bloomer
Start cross-stitching at any age
Most girls learned stitching between the ages of five and their early teen years, but Jane James Williams’ sampler was likely made when she was 20 years old, a very late age to be making samplers.
Apart from the age at which she made the sampler, all else is typical of samplers from that era. Jane included an upper and lower-case alphabet, along with several motifs arranged in a cluster formation. Learning to create letters of the alphabet provided girls the skills to monogram (initial) linens and undergarments, so that the expensive linens could be rotated for even wear, and the initialled ‘smalls’ went back to their owner after laundry day.
Jane seems to have unpicked her age from the work, which is not uncommon as ladies did this after they turned 21 so no one would know their age.
Jane seems to have unpicked her age from the work, which is not uncommon as ladies did this after they turned 21 so no one would know their age.
The 1861 Cornwall census records 14-year-old Jane James Williams, as a house servant and niece, who lived in Helston. She has stitched her birthplace on this sampler as ‘Helstone’, Brixham, 1846, as Helstone was the original spelling of the town.
Photograph of Jane James Milton (nee Williams) located on ancestry.com.au. Date unknown. Uploaded by a descendant.
Photograph of Jane James Milton (nee Williams) located on ancestry.com.au. Date unknown. Uploaded by a descendant.
Jane married Samuel Robert Milton on 23 July 1871 in Devon, England, and their small family migrated to Australia, settling in Eastwood near the Adelaide city. Records vary, but it seems they were parents of up to 10 children. Jane died at Parkside on July 3, 1920, aged 73.
This sampler came to the State Library in a collection of memorabilia related to the Lohrmann and Milton families. The Lohrmanns owned many music shops around Adelaide. Jane James Williams, embroidery sampler on coarse woven cloth, in glass frame, 45 x 21 cm, 1866. SLSA ACC 533
This sampler came to the State Library in a collection of memorabilia related to the Lohrmann and Milton families. The Lohrmanns owned many music shops around Adelaide. Jane James Williams, embroidery sampler on coarse woven cloth, in glass frame, 45 x 21 cm, 1866. SLSA ACC 533
A simpler style
The focus on plain rather than decorative sewing
From the late nineteenth century 'plain sewing', rather than decorative embroidery, was the focus of girls' needlework education.
Eileen Dowling was born in St Peters, a suburb of Adelaide, on 29 June 1891, the third of six children to George and Helen Dowling.
Front of Eileen Dowling, cross-stitch sampler, 20 x 20.6 cm, 1901. SLSA D 8939
Front of Eileen Dowling, cross-stitch sampler, 20 x 20.6 cm, 1901. SLSA D 8939
She was 10 when she made her embroidery sampler in 1901, at the Rose Garden School, in Stephen Terrace, Walkerville. Eileen's sampler is typical of an early twentieth-century Australian sampler being simple, using only one colour of thread, and with limited decoration apart from the simple border.
Back of Eileen Dowling, cross-stitch sampler, 20 x 20.6 cm, 1901. SLSA D 8939
Back of Eileen Dowling, cross-stitch sampler, 20 x 20.6 cm, 1901. SLSA D 8939
Eileen’s married Lieutenant Samuel Harley George, in Melbourne, on 24 September 1915. Lt George enlisted for war service in March 1916 and served overseas.
Image of Mrs S Harley George (Miss Eilleen Dowling), 1915. Courtesy of WikiTree.
Image of Mrs S Harley George (Miss Eilleen Dowling), 1915. Courtesy of WikiTree.
According to a Red Cross Information Bureau telegram held at the State Library, Eileen had a daughter, Helen, in August 1916, whilst Lt George was serving in France. He was wounded in action in July 1916 (a severe gunshot wound to the wrist and elbow) and was repatriated to Australia in February 1917.
Eileen lived to the age of 97, and died on 2 June 1989, in New South Wales.
Starting small - a quilt for a doll
Nothing was wasted in settler households
Nothing was wasted in settler households. Quilts were made using scraps of fabric from old linens and dresses, sewn together with tiny running stitches then lined with a backing fabric. Some girls learnt how to sew quilts and usually began with a dolls’ sized example.
Patchwork doll's quilt, Donated by Dr and Mrs David Crompton in 1998, circa 1902 or earlier. SLSA CLRC Toys Box 80
Patchwork doll's quilt, Donated by Dr and Mrs David Crompton in 1998, circa 1902 or earlier. SLSA CLRC Toys Box 80
This doll’s quilt was hand-sewn by a young girl in the late 1890s. The fabric scraps are cut in long strips. which may have been easier for a child to work with. The fringing sewn around the edged appears to be ready-made.
The fabric is stained which may indicate that it was often used to keep dolly snug in her long white nightdress, which was included with the donation.
Quilt sewing was often a collaborative task, mothers, daughters, sisters and sometimes friends would work together to create adult sized versions, sharing knowledge, community information and perhaps a warm fireplace as well as the work.
Curator curiosity
A young girl visits her grandmother in the country and finds a highly decorative sampler in the attic.
It was made in 1865. Her grandmother then tells her the special story of the sampler, of an orphan boy and a toy horse which comes to life ...
The following striking picture comes from a 1945 book which is part of the Children’s Literature Research Collection at the State Library of South Australia. The illustrations are bright and at a glance look just like cross-stitch embroidery. The images would have been lithographed using colour separations, a laborious task not unlike creating an actual sampler.
A section of the colourful drawing of the sampler found in an attic and made in 1865.
A section of the colourful drawing of the sampler found in an attic and made in 1865.
View pages from The Sampler Story, illustrated by Menena J Schwabe, text by Audrey Blair, London, Peter Lunn (Publishers) Limited, 1945. SLSA: CLRC OS/20 1945
More to explore
Research and references used in this story
Research guide: Births, deaths and marriages indexes
Catherine Gay, "'All life and usefulness': Girls in nineteenth-century Victoria", forthcoming PhD thesis, University of Melbourne, 2023
Flower, Chloe. “Wilful Design: The Sampler in Nineteenth-Century Britain.” Journal of Victorian Culture 21, no. 3 (2016): 301–21.
Catalogue record: Hack Family collection, State Library of South Australia
NAA record: Lieutenant Samuel Harley George, attestation record, National Archives of Australia
Mathews, Iola, Chequered lives: John Barton Hack and Stephen Hack and the early days of South Australia, Kent Town, Wakefield Press, 2013
Obituary for Mrs A C Wagener, News, Wednesday 11 March 1931, p 6, accessed on TROVE
Catalogue record: Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar, Sydney, Picador, 2015
Catalogue record: Every stitch tells a story, SLSA Oral history project
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