Introduction

People who are alive today can expect to live longer than their grandparents did. Almost all of the children who are born in Canada today will live to become adults. But just 100 years ago, that was not true. Lots of people died when they were young. Children died. Even babies.

Why did so many children die in the past? How did things change? This booklet will give you some answers by looking at the way things were in Newfoundland and Labrador.

When people want to learn about the past, they sometimes look at things that were made or used by the people who lived in that time. We will begin by looking at some pictures that women made by sewing.

Section One
Looking Ahead: What is a Sampler?

About 100 years ago, women would sew pictures and letters on to cloth or paper mats. What they made was called a sampler. Samplers were framed and hung on the wall. Some people still have samplers made by their grandmothers or great-grandmothers.

Women sometimes made samplers to remember family members who had died. Here are pictures of two samplers. They were made in Newfoundland in the late 1800s.