A.H. Straus & Co.'Luxor Taffeta' dress silk,'Spanish' design; violet ground fabric length; 1917. Luxor taffeta made by A. H. Straus & Co. A lustrous, reversible, fabric with discharge-printed design taken from Spanish textile art of 16th and 17th centuries. Original is on the covering of some old chairs in the Berlin Museum. Colors are green, yellow, and black on a violet ground. Some areas of the fabric have faded in color, considerably lighter markings are seen in large stripes 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
A length of printed "Klo-Ka" fabric from H.R. Mallinson's 1923 "Karnavar" series of dress fabrics. A double-woven fabric with two sets of warps and wefts. Wool forms a plain open weave fabric, and the ground upon which the raised geometric patterns are produced by interlacing with silk warp and weft. Allover printed design of Egyptian hieroglyphs and figures of Egyptian tradespeople, as on a wall painting in an Ancient Egyptian tomb. 6 colors Trade name for this double weave fabrication by Mallinson was "Klo-Ka", from the French term cloque. "Karnavar" was the series name, named by combining the Temple of Karnak with the sponsor of the excavation that discovered Tutankhamen's tomb, Lord Carnavon. HR Mallinson was in Egypt when Tut's tomb was opened, and visited the site by invitation. He wrote a lengthy telegram back to his firm, which was published in the NY Times and helped set off the Tutmania craze for Egyptian motifs.
Samuel Eiseman silk plain weave shirting fabric length; 1915. Wash silk shirting. A striped plain weave silk, having narrow satin weave stripes. May be laundered without injury to the fabric. Some light staining throughout. Pink stripes are 0.25 inches wide and 1.5 inches from each other. Five thin white satin stripes separate the pink stripes and the pink stripes are bordered with white stripes. Thin and light. Used to make shirts and blouses.
Previous name of the company was Eiseman Bros. from 1881-1898. The trade name was – SECO – acronym for Samuel Eiseman & Co.. It was a silk dress goods sales agency and converter, which also operated mills in New Hampshire. Goods were sold through the headquarters and sales offices in New York City. The company dissolved in the early 1930s. Founder - Samuel Eiseman
A H Straus & Co 'Luxor Taffeta' dress silk, Peruvian-inspired allover design; 1917. Luxor taffeta. A lustrous reversible discharge printed fabric with the design taken from a woven tissue of ancient Peru. Shows fantastical geometric forms. Colors include green, cerise, gold, and blue on a black ground. Overall effect is of alternating wavy and zigzagging patterned horizontal bands.
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 printed crepe plain weave fabric. Pattern "Colonial Stars", one of the H.R. Mallinson & Co.George Washington Bicentennial Prints. The allover, tossed, non-directional design uses blue stars, singly and in groups of 2 and 3 against a ground of evenly spaced tiny blue dots on an off-white ground. The discoloration and oily residue apparent on this fabric sample suggests that either a) it was not either pure dye or pure silk, as are most of the other Mallinson fabrics; or b) it was stored in contact with another object from which it picked up the residue which discolored it. More research needs to be done to determine the origin of the damage.
Stewart Silk Co crepe de chine fabric length, in brown. Some dark spots and light spots throughout. Staples on edge. Catalog card describes color as taupe, but the fabric is much darker like a chocolate brown. 1914.
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 "Salora Crepe" dress silk, printed with the "Tuileries Garden" design from H.R. Mallinson & Co.'s "Playgrounds of the World" series of printed silks. This allover printed design, "Tuileries Gardens", is a repeating landscape design with trees, fountains, lawns, and statuary, in pink, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, black, and white on a beige ground. "Salora" crepe is a Mallinson tradename for a fine, closely woven fabric similar to a crepe de chine. Selvage inscription - Mallinson's Silks Deluxe Playgrounds of the World The Tuileries Gardens. The series dates to 1928 and included both European and American "playgrounds". NMAH holds samples of each design in the series..A photograph from the donor of an area represented in this design is part of this accession.
..A length of Mallinson trade name "Indestructible Voile" sheer silk fabric printed with the "Palm Beach" design from the firm's 1928 "Playgrounds of the World" series. "Indestructible Voile" was one of the Mallinson firm's perennial best-selling silk qualities, and was a long-serving trade name. The print is an allover design with a block layout; scenes of bathing, dining, horseback riding, and architectural features of the "Palm Beach" scene, set off by palm trees. Colorway is in in shades of red, purple, gray and yellow on ground of pink (tea rose). The typical Mallinson selvage inscription, Mallinson's Silks DeLuxe Playgrounds of the World Palm Beach. Company numbers: 1800/2664. Colorway # 13. The company gave a photograph of the area represented in the design as part of this accession.
In 1846 nearly 100 friends and family members contributed signed blocks for an album quilt for Merinda Shedd Wright of Washington, N. H. Possibly made before she moved West, the inscriptions include the towns of Washington, Peterborough, Stoddard, and Goshen in New Hampshire, as well as Lowell and Cambridge Port in Massachusetts.
The signers were the wives or daughters of farmers, marble cutters, mechanics, laborers, shoemakers, doctors, clergy, merchants, and others who populated the New England area in the mid-19th century. A few worked in the Lowell, Mass., mills. They ranged in age from two to the eighties, often mother and daughter combinations.
Ninety-six pieced 8-inch “Nine-patch” signed blocks are set diagonally with 32 half blocks around the entire border. All are signed, and except for one stamped inscription, all are inscribed in ink. Three blocks are dated 1846. The blocks are separated and bordered with printed cotton sashing. The lower corners of the quilt are cut away to accommodate bedposts.
Merinda Shedd, born May 1811, was the daughter of John Shedd (about 1784-1828) and Lydia Farnsworth (1785-1860). Merinda married Zophar Wright (1805-1880). The couple had seven children. It seems Merinda went West, but no further information about her was discovered. Zophar was listed as living in New Hampshire on the 1850 census (pauper) and 1860 census (basket maker). He remarried in 1877 and again in 1879.
Sarah Shedd (1813-1867), sister of Merinda Shedd, penned the following on the quilt: “Oh! A Sister’s heart is deep - And her spirit strong to keep - Each light-link of early hours.” The lines are from a poem, “The Shepherd-poet of the Alps,” by English poet, Felicia Hemans (1793-1835). Sarah was 15 when, after her father died, she found work in the textile mills of Maine and Massachusetts to help support her mother and educate her brother.
In addition to working in the mills, she became a poet and educator. She wrote for the Lowell Offering , and a book of her poetry, Poems of Sarah Shedd, Founder of the Shedd Free Library was published in 1883.
Educated, independent, and able to pursue her own interests after her mother’s death, she aspired to found a public library for her hometown of Washington, N. H. Her entire estate, $2,500 (over $400,000 today), was left to the Town to establish a library which opened in 1869 as the Shedd Free Library and contained many of her own books. In 1881 a permanent building was dedicated that is still a functioning library, having grown from the original 292 books to over 9000.
Her sister's quilt descended in the Nathan Reed Wright family, but they were not related to Zophar and Merinda Wright. Jane Wright, adopted daughter of Nathan, did sign the quilt, apparently as a friend of Merinda.
The large center block of this album quilt is inscribed in ink: “Hester Willard To her Sister Mary Norriston April 12 1842.” Hester’s sister would have been Mary H. (?) Taylor. Almost all of the other 68 pieced and appliquéd blocks contain an inked or stamped signature, and many are dated between 1841 and 1844. Additionally many are inscribed with verse from hymns or period literature expressing parting and remembrance. The signatures on the quilt blocks are those of relatives, neighbors, and friends. They lived either in Lower Dublin in Philadelphia County or in the city of Philadelphia, except for Mary’s sisters, Hester Willard and Emily Taylor, who lived in Norristown, Pa, a suburb of Philadelphia.
All of the 68 pieced and appliquéd blocks are different, creating the sampler effect. Both traditional motifs and delightful original designs are represented. These are arrayed around a 17 x 18 1/4-inch center square. An unfinished quilt top, evidence indicates that it was reassembled at some time. Four blocks have been enlarged with fabrics that appear to be of a later date (1875-1900). The fabrics are mainly roller-printed dress fabrics with some furnishing chintzes, there are no plain-colored cottons.
Mary was probably the daughter of Thomas and Susan Wright Taylor. Neither Thomas nor Susan is listed in the 1850 Census. Earlier, Susan is listed as head of household in the 1830 and 1840 Census for Lower Dublin, Philadelphia, Pa. Many of the Wright family members are buried in the cemetery at the Pennyback Baptist Church which was first named the Lower Dublin Baptist Church. It was the first Baptist Church in Philadelphia. We know no further information about Mary Taylor ---whether she had married, gone west, or died.
B-17 Chin Turret Machine Gun Slot Cover with zipper; Skinner'sTackle Twill and Crown zipper; 1944. Machine Gun Bendix Turret Slot Installation Using Crown Size 10 Fastener; William Skinner and Sons (Holyoke, MA) Tackle Twill fabric and felt; 1944. Army green viscose rayon Tackle Twill and felt; This is a length of fabric with a double-action extra heavy zip fastener stitched down the center, from which protrudes a metal tube through which a machine gun barrel would be able to move up and down in the chin turret slots on the later version of the B-17, with the cover providing some extra streamlining. Golden brass 0.5 inch grommets on edges throughout pressed through felt. Metal zipper. Trademark Tackle Twill by William Skinner and Sons. Triple stitched double acting zipper. Photo of slot cover in use included in accession folder.
Part of a set of six, this Valenciennes bobbin lace medallion features the coat-of-arms of Belgium. Other medallions, two with the American eagle, another with the Belgian lion coat-of-arms, and two with the municipal shield of Ruysselede (Ruiselede) complete the set. See a similar motif in TE*E383967. Belgian lace makers made these laces during World War I.
The coat-of-arms of the Belgian province of West Flanders is depicted on this Mechlin bobbin lace piece. It was made by Belgian lace makers during World War I and was most likely intended to be inserted into a larger item. See a similar motif in TE*E383965.
This piece of lace depicts the Russian Imperial coat-of-arms, a double-headed eagle with St. George slaying the dragon on the center shield. The Mechlin bobbin lace medallion was made by Belgian lace makers during World War I and was likely intended to be inserted into a larger item.
This border is Chantilly bobbin lace made in black silk. The design consists of floral motifs with four-inch long pattern repeats. The edge is slightly scalloped with picots. It was probably made in Grammont (Geraardsbergen), Belgium and was identified by the donor as lace made by Belgian lace makers during World War I.
This panel consists of 42 alternate squares of cutwork and lacis, edged with a border of needlepoint lace. The knotted filet net is embroidered with motifs like an elephant, a goddess, a horse, a hunter, and a dragon, among others. The woven cutwork squares are embellished with geometric needlepoint insertions and surface embroidery. It was probably made in Spain or Italy in the early 17th Century.
In the mid-1880s Sarah Paul Streeper carefully crafted this velvet parlor throw for her granddaughter, Kate Van Winkle’s, trousseau.
Twenty 8 ½-inch blocks frame a center block, 18 1/2-inches square, on this throw. The blocks are joined with a 1 3/8-inch black velvet sashing. Sarah Streeper used applique, embroidery, and paint to decorate the velvet blocks. The center block has a combination of floral motifs that are also found on the smaller blocks.
Crazy-patchwork is used for one block and other blocks have such motifs as a spider web, fan, and an owl-on-a-branch that were popular on Victorian throws. A letter “A” embroidered on one block may have been for Angeline, Sarah’s daughter and Kate’s mother. The blocks are edged with feather stitching. Stem, buttonhole, satin, couching, French knot and herringbone stitches were used for details. A dark red velvet 4-inch border completes this throw.
Sarah Paul was born September 30, 1813, in Pennsylvania. In 1837, she married Peter Streeper (1812-1876) and the couple had eight children. On the 1880 census, Sarah was living with her youngest daughter, Emily, in Philadelphia. Sarah died there on October 20,1902. She is buried at St. Peter's Lutheran Church, Barren Hill, Pa. Her tombstone is inscribed “Aged 89 years and 20 days / Call not back the dear departed / Anchored safe where storms are o’er . . . we left thee / Soon to meet and part no more.”
Kate Van Winkle, for whose trousseau the parlor throw was made, was born September 1, 1866, in Pennsylvania to Kline and Angeline Streeper Van Winkle. Angeline was Sarah’s eldest daughter. Kate married George F. Grieb May 22, 1888. They had three children and also lived in Pennsylvania. Their granddaughter, Johannah Grieb, donated the elegant parlor throw to the Museum in 1953.
Anna (Mrs. Henry C. Slaymaker) and her two sisters, Mary (Mrs. William Boothe) and Lucy (Mrs. Thomas Speiden) worked on this slumber throw top that was never completed. Anna’s needlework is also represented by two samplers, embroidered when she was 9 and 10, that are in the Textile Collection.
Twenty blocks, 12 or 13 inches each, are pieced using silks, satins and velvets. Except for two blocks with simple embroidery, they are undecorated. The combination of geometric and crazy-patch piecing gives interest to this unfinished top.
Anna was born on October 2, 1842, to John and Mary P. Stabler Leadbeater in Alexandria, Virginia. John, her father, was the owner of the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary in Alexandria. Anna married Henry C. Slaymaker, a Confederate Civil War veteran, on November 6, 1866, and they had three children (Isabel, Henry C. Jr., and Frank).
The donor, Mrs. Clarence Milton Yohn, included a note about Anna's grandfather, Lt. Henry C. Slaymaker. “[He] was only 16 when he served as a civilian informer in 1861 and 1862, carrying messages from Alexandria and Washington, D.C., quilted in his waistcoat and pretending hunting excursions in the woods in order to get to his cousin, Gen. Robert E. Lee. He was about to be hanged in 1862, when he escaped to join the Confederate Army under age.” After the Civil War, Henry Sr. established a dry goods business, but died at 36 of consumption on February 28, 1880. Anna died on February 15, 1906.
Anna’s sister Mary was born in 1839 and married Capt. William Boothe (1818-1894). She died in 1914. Lucy, the third sister, was born about 1838 and married Thomas Speiden. The three sisters were from the family who founded the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Shop, which was operated by family members from 1796 to 1933, when it became a pharmacy museum. The buildings, which date to the early 1800s, have withstood four wars and a major city fire, and currently house the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum in Alexandria, Virginia.
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 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.