Textiles

The 50,000 objects in the textile collections fall into two main categories: raw fibers, yarns, and fabrics, and machines, tools, and other textile technology. Shawls, coverlets, samplers, laces, linens, synthetics, and other fabrics are part of the first group, along with the 400 quilts in the National Quilt Collection. Some of the Museum's most popular artifacts, such as the Star-Spangled Banner and the gowns of the first ladies, have an obvious textile connection.

The machinery and tools include spinning wheels, sewing machines, thimbles, needlework tools, looms, and an invention that changed the course of American agriculture and society. A model of Eli Whitney's cotton gin, made by the inventor in the early 1800s, shows the workings of a machine that helped make cotton plantations profitable in the South and encouraged the spread of slavery.

These shears, pressing board, buttonhole cutter, buttonhole scissors, thread holders, and measuring sticks were owned by a Russian Jew named Barnet Rudin. An apprentice tailor from Minsk, Rudin immigrated to New York City in 1899 and finally settled in Rochester, NY, in 1908.
Description
These shears, pressing board, buttonhole cutter, buttonhole scissors, thread holders, and measuring sticks were owned by a Russian Jew named Barnet Rudin. An apprentice tailor from Minsk, Rudin immigrated to New York City in 1899 and finally settled in Rochester, NY, in 1908. There he opened a tailor's shop, which he continued to run up until his death in 1959.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1890
user
Rudin, Bainet
ID Number
TE.T17138
catalog number
T17138
accession number
310752

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