A length of Shelton Looms "Pan Undulay" novelty pile fabric. Solid cut pile fabric with a very fine artificial silk pile pressed or embossed in a horizontal crinkle pattern which gives a rippled finish. Weave structure the same as "Panoply" from the same donation. Color: Caramel (golden brown) Mfr # 66205E. 51" width, no sample length given. One of a group of fabrics given by Sidney Blumenthal & Co., Inc. in 1921. Blumenthal owned and operated The Shelton Looms in Shelton CT, noted American pile fabric mill.
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.
Photograph, black & white: French Drawing - Backwashing. American Woolen Co., The National & Providence Worsted Mills, Providence, RI. 1912.
One of a series of 71 photographs documenting the workings of the American Woolen Company's National & Providence Worsted Mills, part of a large donation of fibers, yarns, and fabrics by American Woolen Mills in 1912.
L.C. Chase "Velmo" figured and printed mohair pile upholstery fabric, "Cameo", 1922. Fabric with cut mohair pile in two heights, with a cotton back in yellow (warp) and red (weft). The low-cut pile forming the background is sparse enough to let the ground colors show through. The allover formal floral/foliate pattern is formed by denser and higher pile in tan mohair; this has been overprinted to add colors: red, purple, brown.. Pattern #213; "Trial 661". . Made by Sanford Mills, Sanford Maine; selling agent, L.C. Chase & Co. Width: 53"; Length 37.5"
Eagle & Phenix Mfg. Co.fabric samples, "Phenix Cottonade"; 1876. Two different patterns of this medium weight cotton cloth.
A) warp-striped twill weave; light and dark browns and a one-thread bordering stripe in bright yellow-orange. Original cataloging information: 28" wide; 52 x 54 picks and ends per inch; #14 yarn; 3.5 yards per pound in weight.
B) Light and dark brown warp stripes, with a single thread yellow-orange stripe in the middle of the narrow dark brown stripes, and a three-pick check effect with variegated white and dark brown plied yarns, giving a shadow check effect. Original cataloging: 28" wide; 52 x 54 picks and ends per inch;
#14 yarn; 3.5 pounds per yard in weight.
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.
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.
Photograph, black & white: Twisting Worsted Yarn. American Woolen Co., The National & Providence Worsted Mills, Providence, RI. 1912.
One of a series of 71 photographs documenting the workings of the American Woolen Company's National & Providence Worsted Mills, part of a large donation of fibers, yarns, and fabrics by American Woolen Mills in 1912.
Sample of Sidney Blumenthal & Co. Inc. lightweight silk drapery velvet, 1915. All silk, machine made pile fabric used for draperies. Color: crimson. Width: 50"
A length of Shelton Looms "Ronge Velvet" novelty pile fabric. Novelty pile weave "chiffon velvet" with black artificial silk cut pile of two lengths: a shorter sparsely woven background which allows the golden yellow ground weave to show through, and a longer, more densely woven patterning pile.Design of "idealized chrysanthemums" One of a number of novelty pile weave samples donated by Sidney Blumenthal & Co., Inc. owner and operator of The Shelton Looms, in Shelton, CT, in 1921. 43.5" wide, sample length not noted. Mfr # 18325 1/3
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 length of The Shelton Looms "Alfresco" printed mohair plush fabric; 1914. Chiffon plush, "Alfresco" - Mohair pile, cotton back. Very long pile, flattened diagonally; overprinted in a diagonally oriented plaid effect in plum, brown, and green. Used for trimmings, millinery, etc. Width, 50". 1 sample. One of a group of pile fabrics given in 1914 (accessioned in 1915) by Sidney Blumenthal and Co., Inc, owner and operator of The Shelton Looms, one of the best known and most important American pile fabric producers. whose mills were in Shelton, Connecticut. Original fabric woven 50" wide. Length of sample sent was not noted.
A length of Shelton Looms "Panoply" novelty solid cut pile fabric. A pile fabric with a very fine, short artificial silk pile, "with the feel of a heavy satin", the pile rows cut in such a way as to give a twill or diagonal effect. Color: larkspur (blue) Mfr #33404E. 52" width, no sample length noted. One of a group of fabrics given by Sidney Blumenthal & Co., Inc. in 1921. Blumenthal owned and operated The Shelton Looms in Shelton CT, noted American pile fabric mill.
Massachusetts Mohair Plush Company figured pile upholstery or furnishing fabric known as "Dracut."; Yarn-dyed, heavy weight pile fabric woven with a cut pile pattern of stylized, detached single floral sprigs against a ground of uncut, or looped, pile. This gives the appearance of a darker color design on the plain looped pile ground, although the yarns are the same color and a uniform height. Color: a slightly grayed green. The cut pile appears dark, the looped pile has a grayer, lighter tone. According to the manufacturer, this pattern is "furniture quality but has also been used by the railroads." Massachusetts Mohair Plush Co. was headquartered in Boston but had a mill in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Photograph, black & white: Pressing Cloth. American Woolen Co., The National & Providence Worsted Mills, Providence, RI. 1912
One of a series of 71 photographs documenting the workings of the American Woolen Company's National & Providence Worsted Mills, part of a large donation of fibers, yarns, and fabrics by American Woolen Mills in 1912.
Photograph, black & white: Drying Cloth. American Woolen Co., The National & Providence Worsted Mills, Providence, RI. 1912
One of a series of 71 photographs documenting the workings of the American Woolen Company's National & Providence Worsted Mills, part of a large donation of fibers, yarns, and fabrics by American Woolen Mills in 1912.
