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2023.608.1, Sampler
Sampler by Josefina Beisler (ca. 1872-before 1894)
2023.608.1, Sampler

Sampler by Josefina Beisler (ca. 1872-before 1894)

Date1884
Maker Josefina Beisler
OriginAmerica, California, San Francisco
MediumWool embroidery thread on a cotton ground 10 thread pairs per inch (fiber identification by eye)
DimensionsFramed: OH; 31 3/4" x OW: 22 3/4" By sight: OH: 26" x OW: 17"
Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund
Object number2023.608.1
DescriptionThis is a large rectangular sampler worked in shades of green, red, blue, cream, and maroon on a white cotton ground. The cotton ground consists of paired threads and has blue threads woven every tenth pair to assist the needleworker with her counted stitches. Top third of the sampler consists of:
"A-I" "K-M" uppercase script; snowflake motif
"N-X" uppercase script
"YZ." upper case script; "a-s" lowercase script
"t-z." lowercase script; "1-10"
The signature "Josefina Beisler" flanked by two cartouche motifs
The place name and date "San Francisco 1884" flanked on the left by a simplified version of the Mexican flag and on the right by a simplified version of the American flag
The bottom two thirds of the sampler consists of stylized decorative bands of mostly Mexican inspired motifs:
Large band of stylized roses, buds, and leaves alternating blue and red in color
Large band of grapes, leaves, and vine
Large band of geometric pattern of stacked triangles and small red medallions
Half band of red and blue geometric patterns followed by a half band of blue and red wave motif
Half band of green and maroon geometric pattern followed by a red and green undulating half band
Half band of blue wave motif followed by a half band of maroon and blue geometric pattern
Half band of green geometric motifs followed by a half band of Greek key
Narrow band of red triangles
Narrow band of blue zig zag
The sampler is bordered in a narrow single row of green cross stitch on all four sides.
Stitches: cross over two


Label TextJosefina Beisler's sampler is in a traditional Anglo-American format with a distinctly Mexican personality. She embroidered two sets of alphabets, numerals, and provided her typical personal identification of her name, date, and school town. Interestingly, she stitched simplified versions of both the Mexican and American flag on her sampler. The bottom two thirds of the sampler is filled with colorful bands of mostly Mexican inspired motifs, including a large row of grape vines. Also, in Mexican sampler fashion, the sampler is essentially without a border.

The sampler was created decades after the art form had all but disappeared in the northeastern United States. It is one of just a handful of samplers that have been identified from the state of California. Typical of this time period is the coarse cotton ground and the blue threads woven into the ground to assist with the placement of the counted cross stitches.

Josefina Beisler has not been fully identified, but strong circumstantial evidence suggests she was the daughter of Bavarian immigrants John Beisler and his wife Katherine Runckel Beisler. They arrived from Germany in 1867, settling in Gold Run, a mining village in Placer County, California. By the mid-1870s, they were living in Marin County, eighteen miles from San Francisco, where they had established a farm in Bolinas. The family is buried in a fenced-off Beisler family burial plot in the Mary Magdalene Catholic cemetery in Bolinas.