A Few Loose Threads: The Story Behind Marion Edison’s Sampler
- Dillion Liskai
- Sep 17
- 4 min read
On every tour at the Thomas A. Edison Birthplace, we always take the same stairs that Samuel Edison, the father of Thomas Edison, laid down more than 181 years ago to the home's second floor. On the left of the landing at the top of the stairs sits the girls' bedroom, where Thomas’ sisters, Marion and Harriet, would have stayed while growing up alongside their inventive brother in Milan, Ohio. In this room, one of my favorite pieces, a sampler made by Marion, resides on the wall. Marion’s sampler is not just beautiful, but it is also a little quirky, and as readers of past articles are well aware, there is a story behind everything. Marion’s sampler is no different, and there is a story behind every stitch.
The sampler, roughly 16.25” x 15.25”, was made by Marion when she was only 15 years old. Having been born across Lake Erie in Vienna, Ontario, Canada, on September 15, 1829, she created the sampler sometime in late 1844 or early 1845, just a few years before her brother, Thomas, would be born in 1847. As you can see above, she made a beautiful border of pink flowers around the outside of the sampler, and she also included a few different renditions of the alphabet, along with her name, age, and a saying. As you can also see, she didn’t finish the sampler.
The sampler's third line of the alphabet looks splendid, and Marion had all the holes poked to embroider the letters. Still, if you look closely, you will notice that she ran out of room for the letter “Z” and was forced to stop at “Y”. She also abandoned the saying she was creating at the very bottom of the sampler. It reads, “May wisdom direct you, and fortune attend, may you ever remember, you”...and then she stopped halfway through making the letter “u” in the word “you”. Why did Marion give up on such a beautiful piece? The answer shows that 15-year-olds in 1845 were no different than 15-year-olds in 2025: she most likely got bored, sick, and tired of it.
Although you may be disappointed that she did not finish the sampler, you certainly cannot blame her. In the 19th Century, having excellent needlework skills was required for young women to run a household effectively. There were no department stores like we have nowadays, where you could buy clothing. It all had to be handmade. Samplers were an audition for “how good a wife you were going to be”. Young girls like Marion would spend painstaking hours, weeks, and months creating samplers to practice and hone their skills. They made these samplers without electric light, with tiny needles, and without any of the machines we use today.
Marion Edison did not believe that a woman’s character and ability as a spouse should be based on whether or not they had a splendid sampler. According to family tradition, Marion once said, “If a man wants to know how good a wife I am, he has to marry me first”. Sure enough, she found a man who wanted to know how good a wife she was. She married Homer Page on December 19, 1849, in the parlor room of the Edison Birthplace. According to Thomas Edison, the first memory he could recall growing up was Homer teaching him how to spin a coin on the floor of the parlor room at their wedding. Marion was not just a “good” wife. She was a great wife, and her great-great-grandson and President of the Board of Trustees of the Edison Birthplace Association, Robert Wheeler, lives on the same farm where Marion and Homer moved to in 1861.
So when you visit the Thomas A. Edison Birthplace and walk up the stairs to see Marion’s sampler in person, I do not want you to see it simply as an unfinished sampler but rather as a deeply human piece. Who among us hasn’t started something with the best intentions, only not to finish? Even unfinished, it tells a story of a young woman who knew her mind, didn’t believe her worth was tied to a piece of cloth, and lived a whole and meaningful life that stretched far beyond the frame the sampler sits in. Marion’s sampler assures us that it is okay to leave a few threads undone because it's often in those loose ends that we find the most truth. Marion didn’t need a perfect sampler to prove her worth. Her life did that for her.
Sources Used and Encouraged for Further Reading
Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. n.d. “American Samplers | National Museum of American History.” National Museum of American History. Accessed June 25, 2025. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/american-samplers
The Victoria And Albert Museum. n.d. “Embroidery – A History of Needlework Samplers.” The Victoria and Albert Museum. Accessed June 25, 2025. https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/embroidery-a-history-of-needlework-samplers?srsltid=AfmBOopKOCCn11B5x1pxLDD3dRbMmisWiftzG0aociSldIz3Yr0T2LPg
Dillon Liskai, a native of Clyde, Ohio, is a Bowling Green State University junior. He is pursuing a degree in Adolescent to Young Adult (AYA) Integrated Social Studies Education, specializing in History.
Dillon has been a Thomas A. Edison Birthplace Museum tour guide for three years. When not at school or the museum, he enjoys cheering on the Bowling Green Falcons, spending time with friends and family, and exploring local history.
Have a question for Dillon? Reach out via email at dliskai@tomedison.org!
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