Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The University Of Maryland Historic Textile Data Base, Clarita Anderson

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

INTRODUCTION

Our charge today is to discuss strategies and methodologies for gathering and extracting data from textiles. My specific task is to discuss the University of Maryland Historic Textile Data Base. This Data Base was officially established in September 1986 with a grant from the College of Human Ecology. Its purpose was to establish a sophisticated data management program on personal computers to handle the massive amounts of data necessary for research in this area. The long range goal of this project is to include all flat textiles. The immediate goal is to establish a data base on coverlets.

Before …

A French "Kashmir" Shawl In The Collection Of The Metropolitan Museum, Arlene Cooper

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

This paper proposes a French provenance for a rare and superb long white shawl¹ in the collection of the Textile Study Room (TSR) of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This shawl has generally been thought to have been woven in Kashmir from a French design because of its weave structure, double weft-interlocked 2/2 twill, a characteristically Indian technique. The quality of the shawl is comparable to the finer Kashmir and French shawls of the earlier 19th c.; there are between 43 and 53 wefts per centimeter of goat hair in 12 colors used so effectively there appear to be …

Piecing In Twill Tapestry Shawls Of Persia And Kashmir, Grace C. Beardsley

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The 19th century witnessed the development of considerable piecework in the manufacture of twill tapestry shawls in both Kashmir and Persia. Modes of construction parallel so closely as to be indistinguishable. This is not surprising considering the centuries-long lively cultural intercourse between the two areas and especially their exchange of designs, weavers and textile technology. In both regions piecework was a response to pressure for faster production, the culmination of a gradual shift from atelier weaving toward a mass market.

Among construction modes, the weaving and subsequent assembly of many rectilinear shapes is to be found especially among long shawls. …

Work-In-Progress, Lynn Felsher

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

INTRODUCTION

This slide presentation and brief introduction represent work-in-progress, originally undertaken for an exhibition that was to have been held at the Fashion Institute of Technology.¹

The textiles in question were either designed for the textile firm of F. Schumacher & Company or imported and sold under the company's name. The slides, reproduced from a number of periodicals and company manuals, were shown in the hope that they would be recognized by the other conferees.

HISTORY²

The company was founded by Frederick Schumacher, who came to the United States from France in 1883 to establish an office for …

Colonial Ecuadorian Yndias And Their Textiles, Blenda Femenias

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Quito, Ecuador was a well established colonial urban center by the late sixteenth century. Although dominated by the Spanish ruling elite, indigenous people (male yndios, female yndias} and those of both Spanish and Andean ancestry (mestizos, mestizas} were socially and economically active in Quito. Cloth was a major trade item and prestige good, which circulated widely in Quito society and throughout the Andes. In pre-Hispanic times, Quito was not a major cloth-production center, and most fabric was imported from elsewhere in the Andes. During the colonial period, in addition to Andean textiles, European fabrics, as …

A World Of Costume And Textiles, Susan Anderson Hay

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Susan Anderson Hay announced the publication of A World of Costume and Textiles: A Handbook of the Collection at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. Written by 13 authors, the book illustrates and describes 113 of the most important textiles and costumes in this superb collection. Begun in the 1870s with the founding of the Museum of Art, the textile and costume collection contains about 14,000 textiles and 6,000 examples of costume. It ranges from ancient Egyptian linen to contemporary Japanese artists' textiles and includes everything from colorful African Rente cloths to the early sixteenth century Flemish …

Techniques And Production Complexity Of Mississippian Period Textiles From Spiro, Oklahoma, Jenna Tedrick Kuttruff

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The archaeological site of Spiro, which is located in eastern Oklahoma, was a major civic-ceremonial center of the Mississippian cultural period from approximately A.D. 900 to 1400. These prehistoric peoples developed an extensive trade network, a highly developed religious center, and a political system which controlled the region. An exceptionally rich assemblage of artifacts has been recovered from the mounds at Spiro, and Craig Mound has produced the most extensive collection of preserved prehistoric textiles in the southeastern United States (Brown 1976, King & Gardner 1981, Kuttruff 1988).

METHODS:

A purposeful sample of 71 Spiro textile specimens from burial context …

Traditional Textiles In Cultural Contexts International Research And Video Documentation, Louise W. Mackie, Lotus Stack, Frieda Sorber

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

As the manufacture and use of traditional hand-made textiles in their cultural contexts decreases around the world, we are trying to preserve some of the information for posterity through publication and video documentation. The work is urgent. The comparatively few age-old traditions that still survive have become the equivalent of endangered species.

Although the size and scope of each documentation project will vary according to what survives, three collaborative results are sought based on research and fieldwork. Each fulfills a distinct educational purpose and informs specific audiences, both scholars and the general public. Each will also increase the understanding of …

Goddess Imagery In Greek Folk Costume, Linda Welters, Linda Tepfenhart

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The seeds of this research were sown in a textile exhibition entitled "Goddesses and Their Offspring: 19th and 20th Century Eastern European Embroideries" at the Roberson Center for the Arts in Binghamton, N.Y. in 1986. Similarities between the imagery of Eastern European textiles and the embroideries in Greek folk costume prompted this study. It was part of a larger field research project on Boeotian folk costumes sponsored by Earthwatch in the summer of 1988

A "hot topic" of discussion among feminists of all disciplines is the image of the prehistoric goddess and the ensuing implications for all women everywhere. I …

Feltmaking, Carol D. Westfall

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Felt is considered mankind's oldest textile. Created of wool or hair through pressure and shocking, and the application of heat and cold, felt is a warm, sturdy fabric used for shelter, clothing, carpets, saddles, and bags or container covers. Feltmaking is a world-wide tradition in the sense that it is practiced in such disparate regions as Mongolia, Central Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

In the souk in Marrakech, Morocco, a two-sided prayer rug is created, one side white and one side grey, using the natural color of the fleece. The process involves the addition of soap …