Embroidered Sampler

Embroidered Sampler

Anna Denlinger

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Anna Denlinger, a Mennonite girl, stitched this sampler featuring the motif of a heart surrounded by flowers and letters that is common to many Pennsylvania German samplers. The letters surrounding the heart, O E H B D D E, stand for a motto in German, which warns: "Oh noble heart think on thine end."

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.