file under fiber: In Praise of Silk exhibit at the New England Quilt Museum

Unknown Maker, France, Boutis Fenetre, c. 1890, detail.

The theme for the current exhibit, on view from May 1 - August 4, 2019, at the New England Quilt Museum is silk, that most luxurious and lustrous fiber. DH and I attended the curator's reception, hosted by Pamela Weeks, Binney Family curator, and the highlight - a lecture, "The Silk Mills of Lowell," given by Dr. Robert Forrant, distinguished University professor at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Fortunately DH was able to assist with some technical difficulties to help get the presentation underway.

This blog post will be a little bit different - just a sample of the quilts in the exhibit is presented, more or less in chronological order, with captions, but the text, rather than describing the quilts, provides an outline of the history of silk in Massachusetts, extracted and condensed from Dr. Forrant's marvelous talk. So two different streams of information, one visual and one textual. In addition to quilts, both antique and contemporary, the exhibit displays some nineteenth-century ladies' garments from the Emma Bowen Collection at the University of New Hampshire, Durham.

Mrs. Almira Capon, Crazy Quilt, 1888.

The demand for silk thread and fabric, initially using raw materials sourced from China, Japan and France, grew with the invention of the sewing machine, diminished by the Great Depression, and unravelled (pun intended) with the development of synthetics such as nylon and rayon.

Silk thread on an industrial scale began during the period from 1832 - 1846, with the invention of the "machine twist" process developed by Samuel Hill. In 1842 socially-conscious investors formed the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, establishing a utopian community to manage all aspects of silk production, from growing the mulberry trees, which are the silkworms' sole food source, to raising the silkworms, to processing the cocoons for silk fibers. Mill buildings were operated by water power, abundant in New England.

Capon quilt, detail.

The goals of these idealistic capitalists aligned with the goals of abolitionists; both groups hoped that silk could supplant cotton, cultivated and processed by slave labor, and disrupt the economy of the South, where cotton was king. Silk did not displace cotton but the enterprise, now the Nonotuck Silk Company, thrived in the period following the Civil War, and became one of the largest silk thread manufacturers in the nation. In the late nineteenth-century the company adopted the brand name Corticelli - the Italian-sounding name lending cache to the product.

Log Cabin quilt, c. 1900, and outfit, c. 1890's.

The industry spread beyond Northampton, to towns in western Massachusetts such as Springfield and Holyoke. William Skinner re-established his silk mill in Holyoke following the destruction of his earlier factory when a dam on the aptly-named Mill River failed and flooded the area. Skinner's enterprise thrived in its new location. In 1961 the family sold the business to Indian Head Mills, which closed the mills; the buildings were destroyed by fire in 1980.

Swatches of silk on display.

Ruth McDowell, Two Shadows, 1984.

Two Shadows, detail.

In the meantime, Lowell, of course, had well-established cotton and woolen mills producing underwear, stockings, carpets, and upholstery fabrics, among other items. Silk production arrived in a somewhat roundabout way. A silk mill had been established in Newmarket, New Hampshire, by the early 1900's but labor unrest and other issues led the Newmarket concern to relocate their business to a Lowell mill, expanding their silk operations already in the city.

Nancy Ota, Universal Ties, 2000.

Universal Ties, detail.

In the beginning of World War II parachutes were still made of silk, and production at the silk mills turned to war work. At the height of production, mills turned out as many as 2400 parachutes a week and employed over a thousand women stitchers, earning many times the wages offered during peace time. However, with supplies of silk from Japan curtailed, beginning in 1942 - after Pearl Harbor - synthetics such as nylon substituted for silk.

Anne Horton, Sacred Gifts, 2006.

Nylon and other synthetics, washable and durable, were developed by Dupont and other companies beginning in the 1930's. Much less labor was required to produce monofilament fibers; labor costs were one of the reasons cotton and woolen mills relocated first to the American south and finally overseas. The demand for silk plummeted following the war - in 1930 there were approximately 100,000 silk looms operating in the United States. By 1950, only 3,000 or so were left.

Tomie Nagano, Hexagon Log Cabin, 2008, made from antique kimono.

Tomie Nagano, with a kimono from her collection, and her quilt, talks about her work

In 1954 the Newmarket facility was purchased by Textron, Inc., which closed the factory and took a tax write-off. At least we have the quilts, and wonderful museums such as the NEQM, to preserve and document this part of America's textile history.