A sample length of William Skinner & Sons nylon parachute cloth from World War II. A smooth, close, semi-transparent plain weave nylon fabric.; Camouflage design in two tones of green (medium and dark) on a lighter green ground with irregular shaped blotch patterns simulating foliage and according to the original paperwork from the manufacturer, designed as protective coloring for army parachutes.
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.
"Japanese Habutai", a closely woven plain weave silk dress fabric, width: 36"; Manufactured by Fred Mendelson & Co.; 1915. Purchased for 75 cents per yard from Lansburgh & Bro., 420-430 7th St., Washington DC, Jan 29, 1915.
More research needs to be done to determine if the Mendelson Co. was actually manufacturing this silk in the US or had an import arrangement with a Japanese mill.
American Woolen Company Trousering fabric sample, 1912. All Worsted except decoration. Piece dyed - black with grey. 1 sample. Manufactured by the National and Providence Worsted Mills, Providence, RI. The Providence and National Worsted Mills, founded in Rhode Island in the 1870s, were originally two companies owned by Charles Fletcher, one a spinning and one a weaving mill for working with worsted yarns. Fletcher amalgamated the two companies into one in 1893, and then sold this company to the large Lawrence-based American Woolen Company in 1899. When the Lawrence mill workers struck against pay cuts in 1912 (the Bread and Roses strike), the American Woolen Company was one of the firms affected. The Rhode Island mills, however, did not strike.
Sample of Oriental Silk Printing Co.'s "Russian" printed dress silk, 1916. A lightweight plain weave silk similar to HR MAllinson's trademark Pussy Willow taffeta. An allover cylinder printed design titled "Russian" printed with small x's and squares on a white ground to imitate Cross Stitch embroidery. This sample with a dense design of 4-pointed geometric figures and filler motifs, perhaps meant to be flower heads, and connecting lines, in green, red, yellow, blue, and black on white. Design and Colorway as T03010.000; Ground cloth as T03009.000
The Oriental Silk Printing Company also produced a trade magazine from 1922 to 1927 called The Master Silk Printer. It was self-promotional but also served as a vehicle within the fashion industry for providing information related to silk apparel for women. The Paterson-Haledon area of New Jersey was the main center of the silk textile manufacturing industry in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and this was where the company was situated. Most of these factories had showrooms in New York City in what is still known as ‘The Garment District,’ and many advertised through this trade publication. Companies selling other fashion industry goods such as dyes, machinery, chemicals, ribbon, and related products also advertised here. Oriental Silk Printing Company was in business from the early 1900s to the mid 1930s, at which point their mills moved from New Jersey to the South.