Ann Champe Orr Design Studio

Nashville, Davidson Co.

Anne Champe Orr (1869-1947), a Nashville native, began her career as the art editor for Southern Women’s Magazine in 1913. She produced her own needlework and quilt patterns under the name Anne Orr Design Studio. These inexpensive black and white booklets were printed in Nashville and sold throughout the United States via mail order. She established partnerships with the thread manufacturers J&P Coats, Clark Thread Company, and the American Thread and Spool Company.

She became the needlework editor for Good Housekeeping , which gave her national exposure. Many of her patterns are still in print, available through Dover Publishing Company.

This well-balanced and meticulously worked sampler is inscribed “Anne Orr/1925. ” While Anne Champe Orr was a well-known needlework and quilt designer, she did not enjoy stitching. Merikay Waldvogel, who has documented Orr’s life and designs in her book Soft Covers for Hard Times, has identified the sources for many of the motifs found on this sampler. Three cross stitch leaflets, published by Anne Orr Design Studio and dating from 1923 to 1924, contain the following patterns:

Set F: Linens, Tapestry and Handkerchiefs, Oct. 8, 1923-wreath, border pattern with tulips, flowers in basket

Set G: The Silhouette Set, Sep. 30, 1924-silhouette (woman), silhouette (girl)

Set H: The Sampler Set, Sep. 30, 1924-Berlin flowers, Chinese people, man on bridge, house, girl with parasol

Waldvogel quotes Orr’s neighbor, Andrena Phillips: “I don’t think Anne Orr knew anything about a needle…I thought it was strange that someone could do all those needlework patterns without knowing a bit about the needle. ” This sampler may have been produced in Anne Champe Orr’s studio as a model. Dozens of women, known as the “needlework cabinet, ” would stitch under her supervision.