By the second decade of the 19th century, building samplers had become the fashion at Baltimore schools. Some scholars speculate that the great houses decorating John and Hugh Finlay's painted Baltimore furniture may have contributed to this development. Several Baltimore building samplers include floral borders punctuated with blue bows similar to the one embroidered on Rebecca Fite's sampler. It is difficult, however, to assign this sampler to Baltimore on the basis of style, since similar buildings with fences and lion lawn sculptures were worked in Ohio, and similar borders with blue bows have been found on samplers thought to be from Pennsylvania. Genealogical studies, however, indicate that Rebecca Jane Fite was one of five children of Martha Barnett Fite and Andrew Fite, who may have lived in Baltimore. At nineteen, Rebecca Fite would have been older than most sampler-makers.