Textiles - Overview
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.
"Textiles - Overview" showing 2 items.
1838 Angell's Patent Model of a Loom Temple
- Description
- Loom Temple Patent Model
- Patent No. 987, issued October 19, 1838
- Emory A. Angell of Killingly, Connecticut
- In his patent specification, Angell stated that “this temple is of the kind which holds the selvage of the cloth between jaws, which are opened by the beat of the lathe, and is in many respects similar to such as have been long in use.” He claimed, as his invention, the way in which the upper and lower jaws were connected by pins to form the hinge-joints.
- On the original wrapper containing the patent application papers is a faint handwritten note “see Saml. P. Mason’s Temple July 1837.” In the process of checking Angell’s patent, Charles M. Keller, the patent examiner, probably wrote that notation but found no conflict with the Mason patent and thus granted Angell his patent.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1838-10-19
- patent date
- 1838-10-19
- inventor
- Angell, Emory A.
- ID Number
- TE*T11414.013
- catalog number
- T11414.013
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 987
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1837 Mason's Patent Model of a Loom Temple
- Description
- Self-Adjusting Loom Temple Patent Model
- Patent No. 291, issued July 22, 1837
- Samuel P. Mason of Newport, Rhode Island
- Temples are attachments on looms designed to keep the cloth at a uniform width during weaving. Self-acting temples required no adjustment as the cloth was woven, for they automatically adjusted their position. The greater speed obtained with power weaving made the use of self-acting temples a necessity.
- The basic construction of Mason’s temples was similar to others of the period. The patented feature of his temple concerned the arrangement of the parts by which the jaws or forceps were forced open and released their hold on the cloth.
- Mason patented other useful textile machinery. Notable were an 1830 speeder for roving cotton (a speeder is a machine used in cotton yarn spinning that inserts a twist to the yarn and winds it on the bobbin) and a cotton whipper (a machine that separates clumps of cotton) in 1834. James Montgomery, in his 1840 edition of “Cotton manufacture of the United States Contrasted with that of Great Britain,” wrote that he considered the whipper the best, cheapest, and simplest that he had seen in factory use over a span of thirty years.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1837-07-22
- patent date
- 1837-07-22
- inventor
- Mason, Samuel P.
- ID Number
- TE*T11414.073
- patent number
- 291
- catalog number
- T11414.073
- patent number
- 001838
- accession number
- 89797
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center