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.
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