Knot tier, weaver's, "Boyce Weaver's Knotter / Mill Devices Co., Gastonia, N.C., U.S.A. No. 54219". An object to be worn on one hand. The four fingers fit through a leather loop strap. The thumb then works the trigger. Used to tie in warps. No earlier than 1926.
A ubiquitous tool in American textile mills. An essential element in telling the story of the hands that operated the nation’s hundreds of thousands of looms while the American textile industry was at its peak. As an industrial story, in addition, is the preference of textile workers in many countries for certain categories of English-made tools, and the transition of certain types of textile tool-making from its original sources in Europe to American manufacturers, first in New England and the mid-Atlantic states and by the 1920s, in the southeastern US.
ATHM Collection - # - 1981.22.1.A-B; Gift of Thomas I. Peacock
Length of Indonesian warp ikat patterned cloth, ca. 1920s. Warp striped fabric in maroon, gold, and white with warp ikat patterned stripes in charcoal gray and white warp ikat. Warp-faced plain weave with warp stripes and warp ikat stripes; self warp fringes. Shoulder cloth or carrying cloth? 59.25 L x 25.5" W. One of a group of five Indonesian textiles given by the donor.
Sample length of Sanford Mills Mohair upholstery velvet , "Venetian", 1925. Small repeating dot and grid design in cut and uncut pile. Blue mohair pile on a blue cotton warp, yellow cotton weft ground. Density variatioins allow the ground to show through the areas of uncut pile, giving a highly textured effect to the surface.
Sample length of figured Sanford Mills Mohair upholstery velvet, "Venetian", 1925. Wine red mohair pile, in a diamond grid and dot design formed of cut and uncut pile. Ground is cotton, white warp and yellow weft. Dense short pile, both the cut and the looped.
Sanford Mills Mohair Upholstery Velvet, "Artemus Tapestry", 1925. A combination cut and uncut pile velvet (alternate horizontal rows of each, printed with a large scale modernist floral design in greens, black, purples, browns, or a medium brown pile. Mohair pile, black ground weft, beige ground warp. Supple hand.
Coverlet fragment or panel in Eight-harness double weave of wool yarn in green and rose. The pattern is produced by groups of narrow warp and weft stripes.Donor notes say "Designed and woven by Mrs. Kerrison" but she is not identified further. (Perhaps a weaver in Rochester?). The accession file refers to this as a baby coverlet. The donor, Mrs. Laura M. Allen, was Director of Weaving in Mechanics' Institute, Rochester, N.Y.
Because of the donor, Mrs. Allen's, importance in teaching and preserving early handweaving, and the use of materials she collected in books on the subject, NMAH should keep the fragments she donated in the collection, as part of the national woven coverlet collection.
Sanford Mills Mohair upholstery velvet, "Venetian", 1925. Mohair pile, cotton ground fabric. Cut and uncut pile in grayish-blue, in a small diamong grid repeat, voided to a yellow ground. Yellow cotton selvage and ground warp and weft. Gray-blue mohair pile. The center of each small diamond is cut pile, outlined in uncut or looped pile.
Sample length of Sanford Mills Mohair velvet upholstery fabric, "Luray Antique", 1925. Length of pile upholstery fabric; Luray Antique. Blue mohair pile in two densities on a golden yellow cotton ground. The less dense areas of warp pile allow the yellow ground to show through, with the effect of a dense blue four-lobed geometric figure connecting a diamond and dot trellis, against a lighter ground.
Sample length of Sanford Mills Mohair upholstery velvet, Venetian, 1925. Deep yellow cotton ground warp and weft, and selvage. Vertical stripe design in plum-colored mohair, cut and uncut pile. Stripes alternate one of cut pile flanked by uncut pile, with one of uncut pile in a 'beaded' design - smal squares linked by short lines. The yellow ground highlights the figured stripe.
Fragment or sample of a 4-harness overshot coverlet: "Sun, Moon, and Stars," woven with fine, bleached cotton warp and weft yarns, overshot with white angora wool yarn, by a melungeon woman 75 years of age in 1924, a native of Clinch Mountain District, TN. Mrs. Mary M. Atwater would call the pattern "The Whig Rose."
Sample length of Sanford Mills Mohair upholstery velvet, "Luray Antique", 1925. Dark brown diamond grid with a honeycomb center to create interlocking four-lobed medallions. Cut pile in two heights and densities. the ground is shorter and less dense, the outline design is longer and denser, The ground, made of cotton yarns (white warp, light green weft) shows through the areas of shorter pile, highlighting the desne outline design.
Sanford Mills Mohair velvet upholstery "Sorrento Cameo", 1925. Figured velvet in two heights and densities of cut pile. The pile alternates picks of black and white; this is then over-printed in red, blue, green to give a very varied shading. The ground is a lower and less densely spaced more, open to show the red ground through. The design is longer and more dense, creating a formal conventional foliate medallion and meander design.
Length of Sidney Blumenthal & Co., Shelton Looms, printed transparent velvet, "La Loie Silvel", 1928. Rayon pile, silk ground. 38" Wide. Short cut pile in white, very lustrous, on a chiffon or georgette weight open plain weave silk ground, which has been printed on the reverse with a stylized Deco floral against a jagged color-blocked ground, in pastel shades of blue, green, yellow, pink, and lavender.. This gives a frosted effect on the surface. Transparent velvets with rayon pile were advertised as 'uncrushable', and were commonly used for afternoon and evening gowns and wraps.
Sanford Mills Mohair upholstery velvet "Sorrento Cameo", 1925. A cut pile with two pile heights. All the pile is in alternate picks of black and white mohair yarn, The shorter pile forms the background of the design, in a black and white horizontal pinstripe effect. The longer pile forms the pattern, a conventional folite meander and medaliion , which is overprinted in dark reds and blue. Highly textural effect. The ground fabric is cotton, with a yellow warp and gray weft. The pile is mohair, in black and white. Wide gray and yellow selvage.
Salesman's kit or box for Hunter, Inc., a distributor of boys better clothing. Salesman's kit including: fabric samples, measuring tape, measurement forms, pictures of final products, prices, etc. All items are in original black box. 1920s. Hunter, Inc., was a distributor of boy’s better clothing. This salesman's kit includes: fabric samples, measuring tape, measurement forms, pictures of final products, prices, etc. All items are in the original black box.
Ready-to-wear clothing did not become the norm for most Americans until the late 1920s and into the 1930s. But until then, even children of middle-class Americans often had at least some of their clothing made-to-measure. The costume collection in HCL holds several objects related to the sales of adult clothing, both made-to-measure and ready-to-wear. This salesman’s case, however, would be the only piece in the collection that relates to the lucrative and expanding field of children’s wear in the first half of the 20th century. The exponential growth of the ready-to-wear clothing trade in the US in the early 20th century was made possible by a “perfect storm” of economic and social factors incorporating immigration, growth in supporting industries such as textile manufacturing, advances in communications and transportation, etc. For children’s wear, it was also propelled by the roles played by public schools, public health, and the professionalization of social work in collecting and making available statistics on physical characteristics of the American populace: height, weight, body measurements. These statistics enabled the standardization of sizes, contributing to the eventual displacement of the “made-to-measure” industry. This transitional phase is represented by this salesman’s case.
