Bound for Australia: Anne Trotter’s needlework specimen book, 1840

Among the possessions that Irish-born Anne Trotter packed in her trunk to start a new life in Australia was her needlework specimen book. Anne, who arrived in the Port Phillip District in 1844, was one of many assisted migrants that were given a passage to Australia as part of the government’s immigration schemes. Anne’s needlework book, which was donated to Museums Victoria in 2014 by a descendant and includes various plain sewing exercises and finely-stitched miniature shirts, provides an insight into the formal schooling provided to young working-class women in nineteenth century Ireland and the skills that they brought to Australia. This article discusses the context of the needlework book and posits its value to a young female emigrant.