A length of printed pure dye silk crepe. Soft lustrous plain weave fabric "Thirteen stars", one of the H.R. Mallinson & Co. George Washington Bicentennial print series. An allover star pattern with two sizes of stars singly and in 13 star circles in white on a dark blue ground. According to company publicity at the time of its introduction, the design was adapted from a flag of the original 13 colonies. Probably a discharge-print.
William Skinner and Sons wool back rayon satin Sunbak graphite blue fabric length; 1946. Strong, soft close fabric with rayon face & napped wool back. Is moth resistant. Used for reversible robes, and linings of women's and men's topcoats and jackets. Color graphite blue. Yarn sizes - warp 100/40 viscose rayon, weft 2 picks 150/40 viscose rayon, 2 picks 1/26 worsted. Fiber content by weight is 65% rayon 35% wool. Woven in Holyoke, MA.
William Skinner emigrated from England to Massachusetts in 1843, finding work as silk dyer. He eventually opened his own silk manufacturing company, the Unquomonk Silk Co., making silk threads and yarns for weaving and sewing. In 1874, the mill was destroyed when the Mill River Dam gave way. Skinner moved his company a few miles away, to Holyoke, Massachusetts, and rebuilt the mill, expanding production to include woven fabrics (Skinner satins were nationally famous) and silk braids. He ran the company until his death in 1902, and the firm stayed in the family, and remained in operation in Holyoke, until 1961, when his heirs sold it to Indian head Mills, which immediately closed the Holyoke operation.
T. H. McCool & Co "Airograph printed" Crepe de Chine silk fabric length; 1914. Airograph printed crepe de chine. Plain off white material bordered with an 8.5 inch wide band of a multi-colored floral design on a black ground. 14 inch horizontal repeat. Design of wheat and flowers. Airograph work by The Decorus Manufacturing Company. The black border is significantly more stiff than the ground cloth, which is a semi-transparent plain weave.
T. H. McCool and Company is the successor firm, as of 1914, to Alfred K. Wright and Company; both companies in the business of converting silks (i.e. buying gray goods and having them printed or finished) factored by Passavant & Co. McCool had been connected with the Wright company for many years prior to taking it over. This donation encompassed examples of "airograph work" on various silks, said to be akin to products coming from Lyons, France. The airograph, or spray-print, or airbrushing, process was done by Decorous Manufacturing & Co of New York City. Acording to the Annual report on this donation, the machine used to create these designs was the first machine of its kind to be imported to the United States, and it was a gift.
William Skinner and Sons wool back rayon satin Sunbak khaki fabric length, 1946.
Strong, soft close fabric with rayon face & napped wool back. Is moth resistant. Used for reversible robes, and linings of women's and men's topcoats and jackets. 41" selvedge width and 36" length. U.S. Army khaki in shade P. Fabric content by weight is 65% rayon 35% wool.
A length of J.A. Migel, Inc. silk dress goods "Moon-Glo" Meteor. Lightweight, crepe weave fabric with lustrous satin face and soft finish. Julius A. Migel was a younger brother of Moses Charles Migel, founder of M.C. Migel & Co., Inc, silk manufacturer, renamed H.R. Mallinson & Co., Inc. in 1915. Mallinson, married to Linda Migel, had taken over as the president of M.C. Migel & Co. after his brother-in-law had retired. J.A. Migel was very briefly a partner with H.R. Mallinson, but left the firm in 1915 to form his own, eponymous, silk manufacturing concern. J.A. Migel used many of the marketing tools that his brother and H.R. Mallinson had succeeded with, but his company lasted only a few years.
A length of block printed Mallinson trade name "Indestructible" voile. A sheer plain weave silk fabric ornamented with an allover conventionalized flower design (imitating batik work) in American Beauty (bright pink) outlined with white on a purple ground. Batik (a wax-resist dyeing technique, known by that name in Indonesia) was very popular in the US and Europe during the late 1910s and early 1920s. H.R. Mallinson was one of several textile manufacturers to create imitations of the hand-crafted batik characteristics through mechanical means. This textile has a very large repeat and according to the manufacturer was hand block-printed. There is a break in the design on one edge, which may indicate that the length was engineered for a particular use, with this unpatterned section meant for an opening of some kind.
A length of J.A. Migel, Inc. silk Dress Goods "Moon Glo Satin". Lightweight silk cloth of close texture with a rich glossy surface. Julius A. Migel was a younger brother of Moses Charles Migel, founder of M.C. Migel & Co., Inc, silk manufacturer, renamed H.R. Mallinson & Co., Inc. in 1915. Mallinson, married to Linda Migel, had taken over as the president of M.C. Migel & Co. after his brother-in-law had retired. J.A. Migel was very briefly a partner with H.R. Mallinson, but left the firm in 1915 to form his own, eponymous, silk manufacturing concern. J.A. Migel used many of the marketing tools that his brother and H.R. Mallinson had succeeded with, but his company lasted only a few years.
Stewart Silk Co white crepe de chine fabric length. White color with some light purple splotches. Two staples with paper scraps attached in corner. Pinked cut edges.
John Wood Stewart was born in 1856 in New York City. In 1897 he acquired an interest in the Phillipsburg Silk Mill Company, which he later took over, expanding into South Easton, Pennsylvania, with a new mill and the addition of the Eastern Throwing Company, a throwing mill. The Perfect Dyeing and Finishing Company was also shortly added, and these three eventually incorporated to create the Stewart Silk Company. The company's mills were in Pennsylvania, the sales offices in New York City. John Stewart died in 1922. Commercial Factors Company purchased the Stewart Silk Mills in 1930.
A length of printed rayon pile, silk ground transparent velvet fabric: Mallinson's "Orchid Tissue Velvet": Sheer plain weave silk ground with double-woven rayon pile.. Discharge printed in an allover, dense floral effect, of aster heads in greens on a white ground. The mfr # for the fabric is #832; the mfr # for the design is #2689. Transparent velvet was introduced in the 1920s as a marketing name for solid cut pile on a sheer ground, usually a rayon pile and silk ground, giving the fabric a very soft hand.. The manufacturer's description of the process is: "The fabric is piece-dyed for discharge (meaning with a special dye) in a ground color, and the pile made to lie in one direction. The fabric is then run through the printing machine where the pattern is printed on the pile surface, which is afterward erected and finished. With the colors put on in the printing process is mixed a discharge chemical which removes or bleaches the ground color where it is not wanted in the pattern."
H.R. Mallinson & Co., Inc. was known in the silk industry for innovation in both design and technology.
A "Martine" silk by the Duplan Silk Company of Hazleton, PA. This design titled "Bishop", on quality "Fleur de Jeunesse" a fine soft taffeta. Printed design of scattered stylized scrolls and flowers in golden brown, bright pink, and light green on an off white ground. This example was cylinder printed. Duplan's publicity touts this series of silk dress fabrics as "Woven, printed, and finished in the US, sold and delivered in Paris and London. Designs by the Martine School of Decorative Art, Paris, France. Directed, owned, and personally supervised by Mr. Paul Poiret, who is universally acknowledged as the greatest creator of women's fashions of the present century." In the press these were called "Futurist Flowers, and there supposedly 8 designs in total that Duplan licensed from Poiret. NMAH Textiles department holds six samples, of four designs, two of the designs in two colorways on two different ground cloths.
Doherty & Wadsworth Co Printed Mikado Silk Crepe fabric length; 1914. Silk Dress goods "Printed Mikado Crepe" with significant fading of color and print. Originally ground was pink, this has faded. "Pompadour design" of detached sprigs and sprays of flowers. Pinked edges.
Henry Doherty and Joseph Wadsworth came to Paterson, New Jersey from England and began working together in 1879. They rented small spaces in mills until 1882 when they were able to purchase a mill and began weaving grenadines. Paterson, NJ was the premier silk manufacturing location in the United States at the time. Doherty and Wadsworth was Paterson's largest silk manufacturers when they went to Allentown in 1910 to set up more mills. The president of the company, Henry Doherty, in 1913 automated his looms so that one worker could operate four looms at a time instead of just two. They also had silk mills in Wilkes-Barre. By 1938, the silk mills had closed down due to pressure from the Great Depression and changes in whoesaling textiles, and strikes by workers demanding higher wages.
A "Martine" silk by the Duplan Silk Company of Hazleton, PA. This design titled "Pekin", on charmeuse, a lightweight satin weave silk. Printed design ofwide and narrow irregular stripes in yellow, chartreuse green, blue, brown, and black. This example was cylinder printed. Duplan's publicity touts this series of silk dress fabrics as "Woven, printed, and finished in the US, sold and delivered in Paris and London. Designs by the Martine School of Decorative Art, Paris, France. Directed, owned, and personally supervised by Mr. Paul Poiret, who is universally acknowledged as the greatest creator of women's fashions of the present century." In the press these were called "Futurist Flowers", and there were supposedly 8 designs in total that Duplan licensed from Poiret. The NMAH Textiles collection holds six samples, four designs, two designs in two colorways on two different ground cloths.
A H Straus 'Luxor Taffeta" dress silk plum ground fabric length; 1917. Luxor taffeta. A lustrous reversible fabric with a discharge printed design copied from a woven fabric of ancient Peru. Original cataloging also says "Character of design resembling Etruscan ornaments" meaning a running fret design, but this design uses the two color running fretwork in vertical bands resembling Ancient Peruvian tunics. Colors are yellow and black on a plum ground. Yellow and black stripes each 0.875 inches wide create a pattern of alternating single and triple stripes parallel to the selvedge edge. Some uneven blotches of faded dye throughout.
A. H. Straus and Co. was active in the 1910s and 1920s. The company was based in New York City and was a premier importer and manufacturer of printed silks. Many fabric lengths in this collection have prints copied from ancient textiles.
A length of the "Arapaho" design dress silk; Mallinson's American Indian series, with small samples of 6 additional colorways of this design attached with a Mallinson tag at the upper right corner. The manufacturer's number for this fabric quality (Pussy Willow) is #5459. Pussy Willow was a long time Mallinson trade name for an unweighted, pure dye plain weave silk with a soft hand.. At the time it was popular it was considered similar to a generic fabric type called "radium". This is a large sample with small colorway samples attached. Large sample is Colorway #9. The design is the Arapaho tribe design from the American Indian series; an irregular, curving vertical stripe layout of beadwork strips and feathers. The large sample colorway has a light blue ground with patterning in dark blue, blue-green, orange, red-brown, yellow, black, and white.
Mallinson's American Indian series followed the "National Parks" and "Wonder Caves of America" designs, and illustrates the company's continuing interest in using American themes, and in utilizing the collections of New York area museums for research and inspiration.
A length of M. C. Migel & Co., Inc. Mexixe series. Taffeta silk: "Pussy Willow" quality. Pure dye printed taffeta, design "Rattlesnake symbol"; 1914. Bright red ground printed with pottery-inspired Rattlesnake symbol, in circular motifs in purple, blue, green, and black. Printed on Pussy Willow quality plain weave silk. The Mexixe series was publicized as the first time an American textile company had utilized American design inspiration without looking to Paris first. The line was inspired by the prominence of Mexico and the US southwest in the news because of the US war against Pancho Villa.
M.C. Migel & Co., which in 1915 became H.R. Mallinson & Co., Inc., was known for innovation in silk design and silk manufacturing technology.
William Skinner and Sons silk and rayon crepe fabric length, in green; 1934. Medium weight, reversible, harsh, lusterless novelty crepe fabric, in armure effect. Same construction as sand crepe (6 shaft harness) and 66 end harness repear -- 40 harness chain repeat. Reed 24/2/1. woven with warp and weft onde crepe yarns (2 right and 2 left), consisting of 1 end 150 denier dull Celanese 40 filaments 3 turns spiraled with 10 turns twist-on-twist around 1 end 63 denier 3-thread 20/22 lustrous silk 65 turns; 2310/1. Commercial name "Mossy Crepe." Color is "spring green."
William Skinner emigrated from England to Massachusetts in 1843, finding work as silk dyer. He eventually opened his own silk manufacturing company, the Unquomonk Silk Co., making silk threads and yarns for weaving and sewing. In 1874, the mill was destroyed when the Mill River Dam gave way. Skinner moved his company a few miles away, to Holyoke, Massachusetts, and rebuilt the mill, expanding production to include woven fabrics (Skinner satins were nationally famous) and silk braids. He ran the company until his death in 1902, and the firm stayed in the family, and remained in operation in Holyoke, until 1961, when his heirs sold it to Indian head Mills, which immediately closed the Holyoke operation.
Doherty & Wadsworth Co floral printed silk dress fabric sample, "Mikado Crepe"; 1914. A pompadour (small detached sprigs and flower heads in an offset repeat) design printed on off-white. Silk dress goods. Some of the dyes appear to have faded. The floral is pink and green and yellow on an off-white ground.
Henry Doherty and Joseph Wadsworth came to Paterson, New Jersey from England and began working together in 1879. They rented space in other mills until 1882 when they purchased their own mill in Paterson, NJ, the premier silk manufacturing location in the United States at the time. In 1910 the firm, then Paterson's largest silk manufacturer, opened new mills in Allentown, and Wilkes-Barre, PA.. By 1938, the silk mills had closed down due to pressure from the Great Depression, changes in the wholesaling of textiles, and labor issues.