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. |
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Selected Objects |
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Cardwork Mat with Greeting Card
This cardwork picture frame contains a printed Christmas card greeting. The frame is embroidered with variegated red wool on a dark gray card. Cardwork embroidery was a popular form of ...
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Coverlet
This blue and white overshot coverlet of wool and cotton, woven in the pattern known as "Lee's Surrender" was, according to the donor, purchased from Aunt Lizzie Reagan at the ...
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Esther Copp's Sampler
Three block alphabets; two alphabets colored in pairs, one all black; no "J"; numbers 1 through 0. Simple geometric crossbands framed by flowering vine and rose bushes. At base of ...
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Feedsack Dress
Life on America's farms in the 1920s and 1930s meant hard work and frugal habits. Farm families were used to "making do" with what they had, wasting nothing that could ...
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Knitted Mittens
These mittens were knitted of blue and white homespun wools in the early 19th century. The shag knit used at the wrists is recorded in an American diary of 1803 ...
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Mourning Picture
This embroidered mourning picture was embroidered in Lititz, Pennsylvania, about 1816, using silk thread, silk chenille, gold spangles, watercolor, and ink on silk fabric. In a gilded wood frame, it ...
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Pullman Porter's Blanket
Part of a Pullman porter's job was to make up the sleeping berths in his assigned sleeping car, and to provide extra blankets to passengers requesting them. The standard Pullman ...
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Sewing Bird
Sewing bird or clamp; Metal, Perhaps silver-plated; velvet-covered cushions atop the bird and on the clamp. Bird measures 3.5433" from beak to tail. Catalog #T15758. Color Transparency #78-1548 shows 24 ...
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Sewing Machine Patent Model
This is a patent model of a sewing machine invented by John Bachelder of Boston, Mass., who was issued Patent No. 6439 on May 8, 1849. In his patent specification ...
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Ellen Harding Baker's "Solar System" Quilt
This "Solar System" quilt was made by Ellen Harding Baker of Cedar County, Iowa, in 1876. The wool top of this applique quilt is embellished with wool-fabric applique, wool braid, ...
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Spinning Wheel
Spinning is the simple act of drawing out a few fibers and twisting them together to form a yarn. The process predates written history, and was first done by hand ...
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