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 30 items.
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1852 Avery's Patent Model of a Sewing Machine
- Description
- Sewing Machine Patent Model
- Patent No. 9,338, issued October 19, 1852
- Otis Avery of Honesdale, Pennsylvania
- Otis Avery was born in Bridgewater, New York, on August 19, 1808. He learned the watchmaker’s trade from his father John, a silversmith and watchmaker. Otis opened a watch repair shop in Bethany, Pennsylvania, in 1827.
- Later, he studied dentistry under a Dr. Ambler in New Berlin, New York, and received a dental certificate of qualification in 1833. In 1850, he settled in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, where he practiced dentistry until his death in 1904.
- Avery was mechanically talented, making many of his own dental tools. He designed a self-cleaning cuspidor and devised improvements to a typesetting machine. On October 19, 1852, he received Patent No. 9,338 for improvements on a sewing machine. The chain stitch he used was enlarged on his patent drawing and he described it in the specification as “two threads having a double lock with each other, and in practice almost every alternate stitch may be cut or broken, and yet the material will not . . . ‘rip out.’” A common problem with the chain stitch was that it could easily be unraveled. His patent claims were for the working combination of needle-bars, spring-holders, and adjustable guides, which regulated the length of the stitch together with a weight for moving the cloth forward.
- The catalogue for the 1853 New York Exhibition noted that three sewing machines were exhibited by the Avery Sewing Machine Co. of New York City. Each machine was adapted for sewing different materials, such as wool, muslin, linen, and leathers. He continued to improve his machine and received Patent No. 10,880, issued May 9, 1854, and Patent No. 22,007, issued November 9, 1856.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1852-10-19
- patent date
- 1852-10-19
- inventor
- Avery, Otis
- ID Number
- TE*T06114
- catalog number
- T06114.000
- patent number
- 009338
- accession number
- 89797
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1853 Wickersham's Patent Model of a Sewing Machine
- Description
- Sewing Machine Patent Model
- Patent No. 9,679 issued April 19, 1853
- William Wickersham of Lowell, Massachusetts
- Wickersham exhibited his boot and leather sewing machine at the “New York Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations” in 1853. His address in the catalogue for the exhibition was listed as 20 Bulfinch Street, Boston.
- In 1853 and 1854, Butterfield & Stevens Mfg. Co., of Boston.
- Massachusetts, manufactured sewing machines based on his patent of April 19, 1853. In his patent specification, Wickersham wrote, “My machine for sewing cloth, leather, or other material is calculated to sew either a chain stitch (the formation of which is well understood) or a stitch . . . formed of two threads, and so that the loops of one . . . shall alternately pass through or be interlocked with those of the other . . . .” Although he mentions sewing cloth, it was for sewing leather for boots and shoes that his sewing machine became important. Wickersham’s patents introduced the method that allowed for the use of sewing leather with waxed thread. The development of mechanisms that would allow for sewing with wax thread was crucial to the industrialization of the shoe making industry.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1853-04-19
- patent date
- 1853-04-19
- inventor
- Wickersham, William
- ID Number
- TE*T06117
- catalog number
- T06117.000
- patent number
- 009679
- accession number
- 89797
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1854 Hunt's Patent Model of a Sewing Machine
- Description
- Sewing Machine Patent Model
- Patent No. 11,161, Issued June 27, 1854
- Walter Hunt of New York, New York
- Walter Hunt was born in rural Martinsburg, New York, on July 29, 1796. The nearby town of Lowville was the site of a textile mill where Hunt’s family worked. Hunt, adept at providing mechanical solutions to difficult problems, worked with the mill owner, Willis Hoskins, inventing and patenting improvements to the flax spinner in 1826. He traveled to New York City to raise capital for manufacturing the device.
- Hunt supported his family in New York by speculating in real estate, but his love of creativity was paramount. From 1829 to 1853 his inventions and patents included a knife sharpener; a rope making machine; a heating stove; a wood saw; a flexible spring; several machines for making nails; inkwells; a fountain pen; a bottle stopper; firearms; and a safety pin.
- In 1833, Hunt invented a sewing machine that used a lockstitch, but failed to patent it. The lockstitch used two threads, one passing through a loop in the other and then both interlocking. This was the first time an inventor had not mimicked a hand stitch. As Joseph N. Kane writes in Necessity’s Child: The Story of Walter Hunt, America’s Forgotten Inventor, “With nothing to serve as a basis or model, with no other machine from which parts could be obtained, he evolved a plan for mechanical sewing which was so revolutionary that had he even dared to suggest it before completion of his model he would have been scoffed at and regarded as insane.”
- Ten years later, manufacturers searched for ways to mechanize sewing, and inventors turned their energies to patenting improvements to sewing machines. On May 27, 1846, Elias Howe Jr. received Patent No. 4,750 for improvements to the sewing machine, claiming to have created the first machine to sew a lockstitch using two threads. When Howe began to sue manufacturers for royalties, Hunt’s previous work emerged as attorneys argued that Hunt’s invention preceded Howe’s and therefore Howe’s patent claims were invalid.
- On April 2, 1853, Hunt submitted his application for his 1834 sewing machine, as his invention preceded Howe’s machine. The Patent Office recognized Hunt’s precedence but it did not grant a patent to Hunt because he had not applied for one prior to Howe’s application. Hunt received public credit for his invention, but Howe’s patent remained valid because of a technicality.
- Later, Hunt was granted a patent for other improvements on the sewing machine. In Hunt’s patent specification for Patent No. 11,161, issued on June 27, 1854, he claimed: “Said improvements consist in the manner of feeding in of the cloth and regulating the length of the stitch solely by the vibrating motion of the needle; in a rotary table or platform, upon which the cloth is placed for sewing; in guides and gages for controlling the line of the seam.”
- Hunt noted that other sewing machines would jam because the material had to be pushed through the vibrating needle. He created a round rotating top that allowed the cloth to be fed through the needle at an even rate, eliminating the problem of jamming. As in the past, Hunt simply sold off the rights to the machine to others and did not capitalize on it, but he did prove that he had the mechanical ability and the creativity to improve upon the sewing machine.
- Hunt continued to invent and patent devices until his death in 1859. Several were patented: shirt collars, a reversible metallic heel for shoes, lamp improvements, and a new method for manufacturing shirt fronts, collars, and cuffs. Walter Hunt’s inventive nature was captured in the New York Tribune, which wrote at his death, “For more than forty years, he has been known as an experimenter in the arts. Whether in mechanical movements, chemistry, electricity or metallic compositions, he was always at home: and, probably in all, he has tried more experiments than any other inventor.”
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1854-06-27
- patent date
- 1854-06-27
- inventor
- Hunt, Walter
- ID Number
- TE*T07781
- catalog number
- T07781.000
- patent number
- 011161
- accession number
- 139439
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1852 Bradeen's Patent Model of a Sewing Machine
- Description
- Sewing Machine Patent Model
- Patent No. 9,380, issued on November 2, 1852
- John G. Bradeen of Boston, Massachusetts
- John G. Bradeen notes in his patent specification that his sewing machine operates and forms a similar stitch to that of Frederick R. Roberson’s sewing machine of December 10, 1850 (Patent No. 7,824.) Roberson’s machine sewed with a running stitch or basting stitch.
- The mechanisms of Bradeen’s patent model are mostly made of brass and the model sits on a simple wooden box. He furnished six pages of drawings depicting his improvements, whereas most sewing machine inventors limited their submissions to fewer drawings. Bradeen claims for his improvements “two rotating draft-hooks . . . separate from the needle, in combination with the two needles and two threads-guides; . . . the arrangement of each needle and its thread-guide, respectively, on opposite sides of the cloth . . . and the combination of the rocking thread-lifter or its equivalent with the needle and presser . . . .”
- It is not known if any sewing machines were manufactured based on Bradeen’s patent.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1852-11-02
- patent date
- 1852-11-02
- inventor
- Bradeen, John G.
- ID Number
- TE*T08634
- catalog number
- T08634.000
- patent number
- 009380
- accession number
- 89797
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1852 Hodgkin's Patent Model of a Sewing Machine
- Description
- Sewing Machine Patent Model
- Patent No. 9,365, issued November 2, 1852
- Christopher Hodgkins of Boston, Massachusetts
- On his sewing machine patent model, Christopher Hodgkins made sure his model was well identified. On the base, “Hodgkins” was painted in bold gold letters, and a brass bed plate was stamped “Christopher Hodgkins.” In his patent specification, Hodgkins wrote “My machine sews with two needles working through the cloth in opposite directions, and the one being made to cross the path of the other. It performs a lock-stitch, the loops made by each thread being locked in the cloth by those of the other.”
- Hogkins assigned his patents (Patent No. 9,365, issued November 2, 1852; Patent No. 10,622, issued March 7, 1854; and Patent No. 10,879, issued May 9, 1854) to Nehemiah Hunt of Boston. In 1853, N. Hunt & Co. manufactured sewing machines based on Hodgkins’s patents. A year later, Hunt took a partner, and the company became Hunt and Webster.
- Ballou’s Pictorial, July 5, 1856, featured Hunt and Webster in an article. The illustration depicted Hunt and Webster sewing machines in an elegant exhibition and showroom in Boston. They noted that “ . . . the North American Shoe Company have over fifty of the latest improved machines now running . . . .”
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1852-11-02
- patent date
- 1852-11-02
- inventor
- Hodgkins, Christopher
- ID Number
- TE*T08702
- catalog number
- T08702.000
- patent number
- 009365
- accession number
- 89797
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1838 Wheeler's Patent Model of a Spinning Wheel
- Description
- Spinning Wheel Patent Model
- Patent No. 710, issued April 25, 1838
- Hiram F. Wheeler of Springville, Pennsylvania
- Hiram Wheeler’s domestic wheel was for spinning wool. He titled his invention “inclined spinner,” referring to the fact that the operator would sit at the wheel as opposed to standing and walking when using the typical wool wheel. When the treadle was forced down by the operator’s foot, a cord pulled the carriage and spinning wheel head away from the spinner. A weight brought both of them back toward the spinner. This movement of the carriage was equivalent to the spinner walking forward to the spindle tip for the draw out and then back to the wheel. Wheeler specifically claimed as his invention this sliding action of the wheel head.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1838-04-25
- patent date
- 1838-04-25
- inventor
- Wheeler, Hiram F.
- ID Number
- TE*T11407.001
- catalog number
- T11407.001
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 710
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1838 Holland's Doubling and Twisting Silk Machine
- Description
- Spinning, Doubling, and Twisting Silk Machine Patent Model
- Patent No. 977, issued on October 10, 1838
- Harrison Holland of Northampton, Massachusetts
- The central part of Holland’s patent concerned the stop motion mechanism on a silk thread making machine. If a thread broke, a small rod, connected to each of the threads by bent wires, would drop. A lever, to which the rod was attached, would come in contact with the drum and then stop the machine by throwing it out of gear. Also included in the patent was a method to change the twist of the silk thread by using a short cylinder.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1838-10-10
- patent date
- 1838-10-10
- inventor
- Holland, Harrison
- ID Number
- TE*T11407.027
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 977
- catalog number
- T11407.027
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1837 Hartford and Tilton's Patent Model of a Loom Heddle
- Description
- Loom Heddles and Harness Patent Model
- Patent No. 544, issued December 29, 1837
- Benjamin Hartford and William B. Tilton of Enfield, New Hampshire
- Hartford and Tilton improved upon the construction of heddles (the mechanisms that raise and lower warp threads) by using strips of rolled flat metal with an eye punched through the middle of each strip to allow for the passage of warp yarns. Heddles were commonly constructed of cord. The replacement of metal for cord produced a more durable heddle. These one-piece metallic strips and the construction of the heddle frame were the basis of their patent. The heddles slid on two rods and were attached to adjustable clasps, permitting the heddles to correspond to the part of the reed (a comb-like device used to space the warp yarns evenly) that was in operation.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1837-12-29
- patent date
- 1837-12-29
- inventor
- Hartford, Benjamin
- Tilton, William B.
- ID Number
- TE*T11409.015
- patent number
- 544
- accession number
- 89797
- catalog number
- T.11409.15
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1840 Thorp and Angell's Patent Model of a Loom Heddle
- Description
- Loom Heddles Patent Model
- Patent No. 1,498, issued on February 26, 1840
- John Thorp and William G. Angell of Providence, Rhode Island
- These heddles, both wire and twine, were exhibited in the Patent Office in a round wooden frame. In the patent specification, Thorp and Angell described the dimensions of heddles for use on a common power loom. A chain of the heddles was formed by taking two pieces of wire or twine and tying them with a common square knot, “which will unite them in the same way and manner that a lady ties her apron strings or a child his shoestrings.” The placement of the knots resulted in the formation of the eyes of the heddles, which raise and lower warp threads in weaving cloth.
- Thorp and Angell did not include a patent drawing with the specification. The 1841 Journal of the Franklin Institute remarked of this omission: “We must suppose . . . that the description, although to us somewhat obscure, would be clear to a professional weaver.”
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1840-02-26
- patent date
- 1840-02-26
- inventor
- Thorp, John
- Angell, William G.
- ID Number
- TE*T11409.032
- catalog number
- T11409.032
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 1,498
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1838 Fairman's Patent Model of a Loom
- Description
- Power Loom Patent Model
- Patent No. 595, issued February 6, 1838
- Elijah Fairman of Stafford, Connecticut
- Fairman’s improvements, consisting of an additional cam and a set of treadles, were applied to power looms in common use. His improvements allowed the harnesses to operate more smoothly and the warp to open, enabling the shuttle to pass more easily. The end result was that the loom was better suited to weaving either light or heavy fabrics. Six pages and three illustrations in Clinton Gilroy’s 1844 book, The Art of Weaving, are spent in describing Fairman’s patent. Gilroy commented that Fairman’s loom would probably work fine for simple weaves, but for fancy patterned work, requiring 10 to 100 heddle frames, it would be totally impractical.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- model constructed
- before 1838-02-06
- patent date
- 1838-02-06
- inventor
- Fairman, Elijah
- ID Number
- TE*T11411.095
- accession number
- 89797
- catalog number
- T11411.095
- patent number
- 595
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center