Ruth Strong Russell was the daughter of John and Electa Edwards Russell of Greenfield, Massachusetts. She was 10 years old in 1814, when she stitched this sampler as part of her schoolwork at a private academy. The sampler’s epigraph, “Beauty and wit” comes from A Review of the Principle Questions in Morals (1758), by Richard Price (1723-1791.) Ruth became a teacher. In 1855, she purchased a large house in Greenfield and with her sister Hannah S. Russell, ran a young ladies’ high school. Ruth never married and died in 1869. Her sister continued their school until her death in 1884.