1818 map of Washington by Robert King and C. Schwartz and 1813 sampler by Julia Ann Crowley

Samplers, Students, and Sailmakers: A Portrait of Federal-Era Capitol Hill

May 4, 2026

Using church records, maps, property records, paintings, and the earliest city directory, as well as a recently identified group school girl samplers, Alden O’Brien painted a portrait of 1810s-1820s Navy Yard and Capitol Hill.

Federal-era Capitol Hill has left few markers on our cityscape and few artifacts survive to tell its tale. Surprisingly, a special group of textiles (usually ephemeral) created by girls (often invisible in records and histories) offers the best jumping-off point for painting a picture of 1810s-1820s Navy Yard and Capitol Hill populations. Recent research into these embroidered samplers reveals they were made by daughters of Navy Yard workers attending the school run by progressive abolitionist educator John McLeod and his wife Rebecca. The samplers and the research that followed were the subject of the May 4th Overbeck Capitol Hill History Lecture.

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Samplers, Students, and Sailmakers: A Portrait of Federal-Era Capitol Hill

Past Lectures

Shakespeare Re-imagined for the 21st Century

Evolution of DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services Through the Decades Focusing on Capitol Hill Fires

Comfort and Conveniences in Capitol Hill Row Houses

The 80-Year Struggle to Build the DC National Guard Armory

How the Carry-Didden Family Left Their Mark On Capitol Hill and Beyond

Historic Congressional Cemetery: A Vision through the Centuries

Boathouse Row: DC’s History Seen from the Anacostia

Thomas Smallwood, the Underground Railroad, and Capitol Hill

United States Botanic Garden: 200 Years of Contributions

Capitol Hill’s Inhabited Alleys

Row Houses of Capitol Hill

Washington Navy Yard: Celebrating 224 Years in the Neighborhood

William Costin: A Tribute to Worth by His Friends.

"Hog Catcher Hog Catcher" Farm Animals on Capitol Hill

The Intersections of History: Five Parks that Changed Washington

Bridge Across History

Following the Trail of John Burroughs

Places of Protest: The Struggle for Women’s Suffrage in the Nation’s Capital

Exposing Washington's History with Archaeology's New Tools

A Monument to Literature in a City of Politics

The Green Legacy of 19th Century Washingtonians

The Razzle-Dazzle: Mary Shiner Almarolia (1833-1904)

The Washington Riots of 1968: The View from Capitol Hill

Anacostia Park - And a River Runs By It

Native Americans Who Never Left Capitol Hill

A Closer Look at Capitol Hill's Historic Alleys

Looking at the L'Enfant Plan in a New Light

Union Terminal Market, Then and Now

Capitol Hill Leisure During Segregation

Buzzard Point – From Indians to Soccer

Alexander Shepherd and the Making of Modern Washington

A Virtual Tour of Capitol Hill's Rainbow History

Frederick Douglass's Years in Washington

Capitol Hill and the Capital

Emily Edson Briggs of The Maples

Duke Ellington's Washington

The Washington Arsenal Explosion

Alice Dunnigan: A Reporter "Alone Atop the Hill"

Why Washington, D.C., Has No Vote in Congress

The President's Own: A History of the U.S. Marine Band

How the Folgers Brought the Bard to Capitol Hill

Michael Shiner's Diary, 1813-1869: A Black Man Looks at 19th Century Washington

"This is the City and I Am One of the Citizens": Walt Whitman in Washington

A City Transformed: Washington in the Civil War

Simeon Booker: Eyewitness to the Civil Rights Revolution

Washington in the Movies: How Hollywood Views the Nation's Capital

A Preservation Success Story: Compatibility and Economic Growth in Washington's Historic Districts

Snow Storm in August: The Washington Race Riot of 1835

301 East Capitol: Tales from the Heart of the Hill

Congressional Cemetery: Its Past, Present, and Future

The Captain Who Burned His Ships: Captain Thomas Tingey, USN, 1750-1829

How Dry We Weren't: Prohibition in Washington, D.C.

The Life, Decline, and Rebirth of the Old Naval Hospital

Washington at Home: Neighborhoods Tell the D.C. Story

The Engineer and the Artist: Montgomery Meigs, Constantino Brumidi and the Capitol Frescos

The Streetcars in Washington, D.C.

The Old Naval Lodge and Freemasonry in Washington, D.C.

The Capitol Hill Restoration Society: Past, Present and Future

301 East Capitol: Growing Up on the Hill in the 1920s

William Prout's Grave: The Beginning of a Grand Adventure

Abraham Lincoln and the End of Slavery in the District of Columbia

The Road to Ford's Theatre, Abraham Lincoln's Murder, and the Rage for Vengeance

Envisioning Early Washington

L'Enfant's Grand Avenues

Historic Capitol Hill Row House Designs: Not Colonial Williamsburg

African American Housing in 19th Century D.C.

Capitol Hill's John Philip Sousa

The Anacostia: Our Neighborhood's River, and the Nation's

Hollywood on the Potomac: D.C. on Film - Getting it Wrong and Getting It Right??

Past and Future of the National Mall

Growing Up on the Hill in the 1920s and '30s

The Improbable History of Eastern Market

The Washington Navy Yard

The Breweries of Capitol Hill

The Instrument Makers of Capitol Hill

Adolf Cluss: The Navy Yard Communist Who Designed Eastern Market

Remembering the Bonus Army

Washington's Railways and the Rise of Union Station