Between the Wars textile symposium - Part 3

Swatch books, American Textile History Museum.

On October 15, 2011, I was privileged to attend a day-long symposium, formally titled Fabric, Fashions and Quilts: From the Armistice to Pearl Harbor. That is a rather unwieldy header, so I'm using a short title, Between the Wars, from one of the presentations, for my blog posts. The symposium was co-sponsored by the New England Quilt Museum and the American Textile History Museum. Our activities alternated between the NEQM and ATHM facilities. We made quite a sight - dozens of women shuttling between the buildings on a bright yellow school bus.

Material culture expert Madelyn Shaw began the day with an illustrated gallop through the cultural history of the period 1918 to the outbreak of World War II, driven by her tongue-in-cheek "unified-field theory of textiles." It's a humorous spoof of quantum physics, but is grounded in the serious reality that almost every political and cultural movement is in some way tied to the production and consumption of textiles.

For example, before the invention of synthetic fibers, silk was a major Asian export, with Japan controlling about 80% of the world's silk production. Silk was widely used in apparel, particularly stockings, but also in parachutes, and had many other applications. With the development of rayon, silk exports fell precipitously. Japan's trade shortfall made it more difficult to buy imported iron, coal and oil, desperately needed for industry. The economic problems caused by the trade imbalance gave the militarists, the pro-expansion faction of the power elite, an opportunity to influence the civilian government, setting the stage for the invasion of resource-rich neighbor states.

After Ms. Shaw's presentation the seventy or so participants split into three groups, and rotated through three concurrent sessions. One of the sessions took us, on our big yellow school bus, to the American Textile History Museum, for a behind the scenes look at a very special collection, introduced by Diane Fagan Affleck, retired Director of Interpretation for the museum. What the Rosetta Stone is to linguists, fabric swatch books are to textile historians, I imagine. A swatch book is a ledger, usually dated, with fabric samples tipped in (glued down.) Swatch books which fortuitously escaped the landfill provide definitive dating for fabrics, and, when properly stored - dark and dry - a record of the original colorways.

Swatchbook page.

The museum laid out many swatchbooks for us, as well as manufacturing marketing materials featuring fabrics samples and contemporary fashions. As this material is normally not on display, it was exciting to see so many authentic fabrics from the 1920's and 1930's.

Left, swatchbook page.
Right, participant leafs through a swatchbook.
Right, below, apparel marketing materials.

Like many quilters, I've read about period fabrics, and absorbed the conventional wisdom regarding the design and color palette of fabrics printed during the economic downturn. Supposedly, inks and dyes were diluted to stretch the supply, resulting in a pastel palette. In addition, fabrics featured a lot of white, unprinted space, to further reduce usage of pigments. Fabrics printed in one color were popular, as this eliminated the need for registration, or the correct alignment of multiple colors in a pattern. Poorly printed fabric could not have been sold as first-quality goods, so the manufacturers would lose money if a complicated print was imperfect.

Swatchbook, conversational print.

A quick look at these swatchbooks revealed, however, that the situation was a bit more complicated, and only a granular study closely comparing dated swatches from the period would allow truly accurate characterization of the fabrics. I did see plenty of pastels, as expected, but also bright, intense colors, as well as fabrics with very little ground, or white space.

Swatchbook.

A few of the swatchbooks still show the
effects of water damage from a
museum fire a while back.

I want this print in every colorway. Someone reproduce it, please.

Apparel manufacturer's marketing materials -
with swatches.

Another session at the museum was a lecture on modernist textiles given by Giles Kotcher, an independent dealer and author. He also brought some textiles for show and tell, including silks by Mallinson and Cheney and a piece of "The Gossips" fabric by Virginia Lee Burton of the Folly Cove art group. His lecture, which included material outside of the symposium's focus, covered a lot of ground in a limited time, so I'm glad Mr. Kotcher distributed lecture notes.

For me, the more hand-outs the better, and participants also received an extensive bibliography of era-specific titles, as well as surveys of fashion and costume which include discussion of the 1918-1941 era.

I enjoyed this jam-packed symposium and hope both museums will collaborate again on a day of learning and fun.

Detail, a 1930's quilt, from the collection of
NEQM Director Connie Collum Barlow.

Between the Wars textile symposium - Part 2

Butterflies, c. 1935. Nina Schrock.

On October 15, 2011, I was privileged to attend a day-long symposium, formally titled Fabric, Fashions and Quilts: From the Armistice to Pearl Harbor. That is a rather unwieldy header, so I'm using a short title, Between the Wars, from one of the presentations, for my blog posts. The symposium was co-sponsored by the New England Quilt Museum and the American Textile History Museum. Our activities alternated between the NEQM and ATHM facilities. We made quite a sight - dozens of women shuttling between the buildings on a bright yellow school bus.

In the afternoon we enjoyed a "quilt-turning" of quilts from the collection of the NEQM, led by quilt historian Merikay Waldvogel. Merikay's assistants, who I believe were Stephanie Hatch and Cyndi Black (they were not introduced but are listed in the program) stacked quilt after quilt on a large table for our admiration. We received a wonderful hand-out with thumb-nails and description of each quilt, and the information in this blog is taken from the hand-out.

Pink Boudoir Whole Boudoir quilt, c. 1920.
Maker unknown.

The design for this quilt, whose true color is represented by the image on the right, above, was produced by the McCall Kaumagraph Company, which made iron-on transfers. The full-size pattern was printed on tissue-like paper and the consumer, presumable having pinned the paper to the fabric first, transferred the design to her fabric with the heat from her domestic iron.

Butterflies with Central Medallion, c. 1930.

Susie Alice Farnsworth Smith.

Ms. Smith, who lived in Massachusetts, arranged her butterflies around a central medallion made using the traditional broderie perse method, in which motifs are cut out from floral prints and then appliqued into a new arrangement. Broderie perse is an old technique, seen in 18th centuries quilts. Hence this quilt is an unusual combination of techniques.

Double Wedding Ring, c. 1930.
Ida Moore Gwin or Elizabeth Ann Landes Pierrel.

This quilt contains several fabrics print in New England Mills, and, yes, that is a swastika design in the detail on the right. The swastika is an ancient symbol which did not acquire negative connotations until the ascendency of the Third Reich in Germany. The presence of the motif is one way to establish definitively that the fabric, and the quilt, were produced before World War II. Since quilters often saved fabrics for years, making dating a quilt without documentation difficult, the presence of such markers as the swastika fabric is as important to the quilt historian as carbon dating is to the archaeologist.

Star of Bethlehem, c. 1925
Pearle Gwin Pierrel.

Like many quilt designs, this pattern has multiple names, including Star of Bethlehem, Lone Star and Blazing Star. Quilters could purchase complete kits or packages of die-cut, color co-cordinated diamonds.

On the wall behind the symposium participants are some of the other items on display in this room, including feedsacks, still with the purveyor's labels, and aprons. Not visible are many scrapbooks and swatch books set out around the room for our perusal. This type of documentation is essential to rigorous textile history research, but also just a treat to see.

Grandmother's Flower Garden, c. 1925
Susie Alice Farnsworth Smith.

Many versions of this popular pattern feature a center hexagon in light yellow, so the use of black centers makes this quilt a bit unusual, but I like the contrast between the dark center and the pastel tones of the petals. The quilter "fussy cut" many of the petals, as can be seen in the details on the right.

Postage Stamp Irish Chain, 1933.
Margaret Lottie Covey O'Brien.

Packages of tiny pre-cut cloth squares, or "postage stamp" pieces, were sold to quilters, so the maker of this bed covering may not have had to cut each and every tiny 3/4" piece. The hand-quilting is exquisite, and Ms. O'Brien embroidered her name, as well as the date of her quilt, in the border, a gift for quilt historians.

Butterflies, c. 1935

Nina Schrock.

According to our hand-out, "During the Depression, Eleanor Roosevelt encouraged women to participate in making traditional crafts as part of the Work Relief Program of the Works Progress Administration. Magazines like Good Housekeeping published patterns for scrap-bag quilts, allowing the quilter to use bits of left over materials."

Ms. Schrock sorted her scraps with a good eye for color, and the polka dot fabric of the insect abdomens sets off the plethora of prints beautifully.

Martha's Vineyard, 1937. Julia King.

The history of quilting is also the history of targeted marketing and advertising to women. In 1929, Fritz Hooker, the sales manager for Mountain Mist, maker of quilt battings since 1846, came up with the idea of printing quilt patterns on the inside of the batting wrappers. Martha's Vineyard was pattern number twenty-eight in a popular range that grew to one hundred and thirty patterns.

Merikay Walvogel displays an old quilt batting wrapper.

During the presentation, Ms. Waldvogel shared many additional items with us, including contemporaneous newspaper clippings, original patterns and other ephemera. Ms. Waldvogel has written several quilt history books and has ferreted out much primary documentation, including this quilt batting wrapper, on the inside of which is printed the pattern for the quilt.

Not so long ago much quilt history was a bit fuzzy, with more reliance on quilt lore, and an emphasis on the romance of quilts, than hard facts. Ms. Waldvogel's excellent research is a welcome corrective. Ms. Waldvogel was an excellent presenter, and I plan to track down her books, which include Soft Covers for Hard Times: Quiltmaking and the Great Depression and Patchwork Souvenirs of the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.

Between the Wars textile symposium - Part 1

Dresses from the 1930's.

On October 15, 2011, I was privileged to attend a day-long symposium, formally titled Fabric, Fashions and Quilts: From the Armistice to Pearl Harbor. That is a rather unwieldy header, so I'm using a short title, Between the Wars, from one of the presentations, for my blog posts. The symposium was co-sponsored by the New England Quilt Museum and the American Textile History Museum. Our activities alternated between the NEQM and ATHM facilities. We made quite a sight - dozens of women shuttling between the buildings on a bright yellow school bus.

One highlight of the symposium was a fortuitously timed exhibit at the ATHM, Grace & Glamour: 1930's Fashion, showcasing, according to curator Karen Herbaugh "...the graceful geometric cuts and streamline modernism of the 1930's." The exhibit, which ran from May 21 to October 16, 2011, confronts two misconceptions about the 30's - first, although a great many people were out of work, many were also relatively unaffected, and still had money to spend on their wardrobes. Second, notions of Depression thrift and economy are somewhat upended by the popularity of the bias cut styling of skirts.

Pattern pieces laid out "on the bias."
Source: http://wkdesigner.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/bias-cut-camisole/

"Cutting on the bias" means placing pattern pieces at a 45 degree angle to the fabric selvedge. Clothes cut on the bias have a very relaxed, elegant drape - see Myrna Loy's gowns in the "Thin Man" movies - but the technique results in a lot of wasted fabric, especially as 1930's cotton fabrics were only 36" wide. Of course, cotton scraps could be thriftily used for children's clothes, doll clothes, and quilts. Not for the first time, though, does consumer preference trump efficient use of resources.

Cotton was still used for even the dressiest of dresses, and would have been comfortable in the era before wide-spread use of air-conditioning. It's not a wash and wear fiber though, and cotton dresses required careful laundering and ironing. The women who could afford these dresses could also hire household help.

The exhibit also highlighted the growing use of rayon, one of the first synthetic fibers, during this decade. Most of the dresses in the exhibit do not have manufacturer or store labels, and it was unclear to me whether the garments were of home apparel manufacture, or made to order by professional seamstresses, or part of the increasing department store ready-to-wear trade.

New England used to be a busy garment manufacturing center. For example, Carl Shapiro, Boston-area philanthropist, founded the Kay Windsor clothing company in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1939, and sold it to the Vanity Fair Corporation in 1971. The proceeds of this sale formed the basis for his family foundation, which funded, among other endeavors, the New Wing of the Museum of Fine Arts.

Wherever the garments were made, the dresses on display exemplify the change in silhouette from the 1920's style. Curator Herbaugh thoughtfully included a few garments from the 1920's to make the contrast unmistakable.

1920's dress - no waist, flat bosom, dropped skirt.

1930's dresses - defined and accentuated waist,
bodice and neckline details, pastel colors.

Left, print dress. Right, sample swatch of dress fabric.

Ms. Herbaugh's curatorial "Aha!" moment, related to us in her brief highlight tour, was discovering that the ATHM had a swatch book with fabrics matching the material of one of the dresses. It doesn't take much to get us fabric junkies excited.

Dress with feminine floral print.

One typical characteristic of thirties dresses that can be seen in the dress and skirt detail above is that when lengthwise stripes are cut on the bias, the stripes meet at the center seam to form a chevron. This effect is also striking with plaids.

Last but not least, the accessories
- gloves, hats and shoes.

Although most of the items in the exhibit came from the ATHM's own collection, several of the objects were borrowed from Lasell College, right in my own town of Newton.

The American Textile History Museum website is http://www.athm.org/