Eagle & Phenix Mfg. Co.fabric sample, "Southern Camlet or Jeans"; 1876. Plain weave alternating indigo blue and white warp yarns, with an indigo blue weft or filling. Yarns irregularly spun, deliberately, giving a variegated effect to the finished fabric.
The Eagle Mfg Co. of Columbus Georgia was established in 1851, before the Civil War, by New York native William Young. After the war, the mill was re-established and renamed the Eagle & Phenix Mfg. Co., symbolizing the renewal of the mill after the destruction of the war. The company survived several changes of ownership from 1896 until 1947, and the mill passed through several more changes until 2003.
Silk fabric sample; Lisbon, Portugal; 1876. Part of a group of "19 frames of samples of silk goods for dresses and upholstery" acquired as a gift from the National Silk Spinning and Weaving Company, Successor to Cordeiro Irmao, Lisbon, Portugal in 1876. Original numbers H5074-H5089.
Sample of all-cotton printed furnishing plush, Contrexeville Mfg. Co., 1914. Solid cut pile, medium weight ground, dense pile.. Light pink ground, overprinted with an allover design of heraldic devices framed by foliate scrolls, connected by trompe l'oeil ribbon meanders; Colors: red, black, pinks. Contrexeville Mfg. Co. was an important maker of cotton velvets and plushes from the 19th into the 20th centuries, and held several patents for improvements to the pile fabric loom. One of a group of samples donated by the manufacturer in August 1914.
Sample length of Collins & Aikman mohair upholstery plush; solid cut pile in golden-brown (tan) on a cotton ground with black warp and yellow weft. This is a heavy, cotton back fabric with a long pile of mohair which is finished to stand erect, giving the fabric a slightly shaggy appearance.
Collins & Aikman Corporation was founded in 1891 and incorporated in 1929. The company made high end upholstery fabrics, including velvets and plushes in cotton, mohair, and silk, and beginning in the 1910s, artifical silk (rayon). Early on the firm competed successfully in the market for automotive and aviation fabrics. In the 1920s the company had mills in Astoria (Queens), New York; Philadelphia, PA; and North Carolina.
Piece-dyed silk crepe-backed-serge, in gold; National Silk Dyeing Co.; 1913. Examples of silk woven in the raw and dyed in the piece. Original sample # 113. One of a group of 145 samples of silk fabrics and yarns of various types, weaves, uses, and origins donated in 1913 by the National Silk Dyeing Co., of Paterson, New Jersey (America's "Silk City"), which was one of the largest and most comprehensive silk dyeing and printing firms in the U.S.
Wm. Skinner and A. Sulka necktie fabric sample; Jeep design; 1945. Same fabric used to make neck tie, T09141.002.; Off-color jacquard-figured crepe after steaming, and showing the application of color screen. Fabric maker's pattern No. 1958. Men's printed necktie fabric; Viscose rayon crepe jacquard; 1945. World War II Jeep design. Thread provided by William Skinner and Sons in Holyoke, MA, Screen printing and weaving by A. Sulka & Company. Screen printed red figures, green Jeep, and dark blue background forming pattern no. 9158 small army automobile. Same fabric as T-9137 after steaming. Satin circles on fabric.
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.
Sample of silk crepe meteor in the gum; National Silk Dyeing Co., 1915. Silk fabric woven in the gum, as it comes from the loom. Part of a donation of 63 samples representing the processes of silk skein-dyeing, and silk piece-dyeing and printing, given by the National Silk Dyeing Co of Paterson, New Jersey, in 1915. National Silk Dyeing Co., headquartered at 140 Market St., Paterson, NJ was formed from five silk dyeing firms in Peterson, NJ (Auger & Simon Silk Dyeing Company; Emil Geering Silk Dyeing Co., Knipscher & Maas Silk Dyeing Company, Kearns Brothers, and Gaede Silk Dyeing Co.) and a fifth company from Allentown, Pa. (Lotte Brothers under the leadership of Charles I. Auger. National Silk Dyeing immediately became one of the large silk dyeing conglomerates in the nation. It operated into the Great Depression but was eventually broken up and sold off.
Sample of piece-dyed silk marquisette, in black. National Silk Dyeing Co.; 1913. Examples of silk woven in the raw and dyed in the piece. Original sample # 139. One of a group of 145 samples of silk fabrics and yarns of various types, weaves, uses, and origins donated in 1913 by the National Silk Dyeing Co., of Paterson, New Jersey (America's "Silk City"), which was one of the largest and most comprehensive silk dyeing and printing firms in the U.S.
American Woolen Co. Suiting fabric sample in black, grey, and white, 1912. Unfinished mixture suiting; goods selvage width as they come off the loom 58-60 inches wide.
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 Sidney Blumenthal & Co. Inc. lightweight silk drapery velvet, 1915. All silk, machine made pile fabric used for draperies. Color: crimson. Width: 50"
Arlington Mills worsted fabric process sample, 1940. Very dark navy blue wool; herringbone twill weave; Process label reads: "Worsted Cloth from 1/4 Blood Staple Territory Wool". Numerous moth holes; with a 4x5 cut off one corner. Edges have been pinked. [Originally part of an Arlington Woolen Mills process display board; dismantled, probably before 1980.]
Several of the process samples in this group are labeled with where the wool came from. "Territory" wool came from the American west; "Fine Territory" may have meant either 100% merino or a high percentage of merino sheep in the mix. Territory, also called Range wools, comprised a large and important segment of US wool-growing, but into the early 20th century the wools were often characterized as being badly sheared and packed, dirty and with a lot of plant material caught in the fleeces.
Arlington Mills, successor to Arlington Woolen Mills, was one of the premier woolen and worsted companies in the US for many decades. The mills were in and around Lawrence, MA, and company headquarters was in Boston. American manufacturers of woolen and worsted yarns and of woven and knitted textiles relied on both American-grown wool and on imports of raw wool and partially processed wool fiber, called "tops", American growers never produced more than about half the raw wool needed by the American manufacturing sector.
Sample of piece-dyed silk poplin,changeable effect in green and cherry red. National Silk Dyeing Co.; 1913. Examples of silk woven in the raw and dyed in the piece. Original sample # 127. One of a group of 145 samples of silk fabrics and yarns of various types, weaves, uses, and origins donated in 1913 by the National Silk Dyeing Co., of Paterson, New Jersey (America's "Silk City"), which was one of the largest and most comprehensive silk dyeing and printing firms in the U.S.
