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Preface- 1992, Beverly Gordon

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Preface

In choosing the theme "Textiles in Daily Life" for its third biennial symposium, the Textile Society of America has provided access to an intimate view of textiles - the way in which textiles touch the lives of everyone, from rich to poor, from East to West, from past to present, from birth to death. The theme has provided a showcase for the diversity of disciplines, approaches, and sources of information which characterize our membership and which energize our organization.

It was only fitting that papers on Japanese textiles began and ended the symposium, in tribute to our host - …

Maya Weavers Of Guatemala: Implications For Marketing And Development, Annamma Joy, Kathryn Lipke, John Mckay

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This video/presentation focuses on the active participation of women in the development process in Guatemala. Development is viewed as a larger process of socio-economic change that takes into consideration issues of self-determination and selfreliance (Joy and Ross, 1989). Modernization theorists generally assume that there is a general improvement in women's participation and status due to urbanization and capitalist development (Quinn, 1977) while dependency theorists emphasize the detrimental effects of the development process on women. In this video we provide a context for examining the causes and conditions that allow for the participation of women (Nash, 1981).

For more than a …

Narratives Of Action And Identity In Cloth: The Textiles Of Highland Luzon, The Philippines, B. Lynne Milgram

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The textile artifact, although framed by its physical existence, is not an isolated entity, but functions as a vital part in the ongoing systems of society. By viewing the artifact as an actor with its own life history and with particular parts to play in every sphere of life's narrative, we are provided with an entry to discovering how both the textile object and the subject, its creator and user, collaborate to mutually define one another. To interpret fully the significance of textiles within their cultural context one must examine not only the artifact's physical qualities, its materials, techniques and …

Fragments Of Everyday Life, Karen Jenson Rutherford

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In my work I am concerned with the general concepts of movement and change and specifically with the profoundness of the idea that we are touched by fiber from the moment of birth until the moment of death. This accessibility of textiles combined with the vast historical foundation of textiles allows for abundant exploration as an artist.

In her book, On Weaving, Anni Albers (1965) defines weaving as "the making of a pliable plane" (19). She further describes six structures used to create this pliable plane. They are interlacing (which we normally think of as weaving), plaiting or braiding, looping, …

Coptic Dress In Egypt: The Social Life Of Medieval Cloth, Michael Bazinet

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

"Daily life" is a catchword in historiography for many of the things that historians traditionally have not considered, or have not been able to study due to gaps in historical records¹. In archives and archaeology, the record of daily life activities is often very slim, even for times and places where both archives and archaeology are relatively rich. Egypt is one such place.

"Daily life" also implies a potential focus on the poor as well as the wealthy, on the oppressed as well as the empowered. The methodology for creating this focus remains difficult, even for ancient Egypt. …

Handweaving In The Everyday Life Of Artisans, Merchants And Consumers In Fez, Morocco, In The 1980'S, Lotus Stack

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

My original desire to study an urban center which still produced elaborate handmade textiles was to provide some possible clues to more seriously consider the practical side of historic production. In other words, what were the physical concerns and limitations of cloth production. In the end I learned that textiles often function in a very complex, multidimensional form and cannot be truly understood without considering many facets of the society which produced them. Conversely, in societies where textiles are highly valued, their study can add much to understanding everything from cultural values, economics and technology to international politics.

In addition …

Textiles In The Everyday Life Of Artisans, Merchants, And Consumers In Fez, Morocco, In The 1980s, Louise W. Mackie

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The four authors contributing to this topic are collaborating to document the manufacture and use of handmade textiles in daily life in Fez, Morocco.¹ Fez is the only city in the western world in which there is both a supply and a demand for many types of handmade urban fabrics. A dozen different types exist. They are all part of a continuous, not revived, tradition. Some types are flourishing, some marginal, and one is the equivalent of an endangered species.

Our comments are based on at least three field trips to Fez between 1986 and 1990 by three textile …

The Persistence Of Bandhani Production In Barmer, Rajasthan, India, Mary Ann Fitzgerald

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In Barmer, Rajasthan, India, traditional alizarin and alizarin-indigo cotton bandhani¹ (tie-dye) garments are produced and distributed to rural populations. The producers of these garments are the Khatri, traditional Hindu dyers and weavers of cotton and silk, while the garments are purchased and worn by Sindhi Muslims and the Hindu Khumbhar women. Thus, the producers and consumers are socially distinct groups. This historical association between producers and consumers has created a tradition of bandhani production that is currently threatened by the introduction of inexpensive screen-printed textiles.

There are two aspects of this traditional bandhani production that may play an important …

Trimmings In Fez Morocco, Frieda Sorber

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Decorative finishes are an integral part of textiles in many traditional cultures, both past and present. Unfortunately they have often escaped the attention of textile scholars. Published material on detailed observation in the field is often lacking. However, research into trimmings can give valuable information on technological, social and economical aspects of a culture. The city of Fez is an excellent place to study the production and function of trimmings in an urban setting with a wide variety of crafts¹.

Types of trim made in Fez

Research into trimmings in Fez started with detailed field observation of a …

A Glimpse Of Japanese Dyeing Workshops, Mary V. Hays, Ralph E. Hays

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

While in Japan in September 1991 we were fortunate to be taken to several small dyeing establishments that make fukusa, furoshiki and kosode. We were most fortunate to have an entre into these establishments because without the proper introduction we would never have been able to make the contacts necessary for an invitation to observe their operation. We were fortunate also in being able to attend a special exhibition of kimono produced by contemporary textile artists. We could not help but be impressed by the cost of these kimono, which are one of a kind works of art. Those …

A "Little Book Of Samples": Evidence Of Textiles Traded To The American Indians, Rita J. Adrosko

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The original inhabitants of the United States were hunters and farmers, who used the produce of the hunt and of their gardens for food, clothing and shelter, for ritual purposes and pleasure. While some textiles were produced by Indians before the arrival of Europeans, the colorful yardgoods, blankets, kerchiefs, ribbons, and tapes introduced by the Europeans quickly became popular items of trade.

As early as 1685 wool fabrics such as matchcoat (a cloak material), stroudwaters, blankets, and stocking were listed among goods traded by William Perm's agents for lands west of the Delaware River. Two years earlier in a similar …

A Documentation Of African Trade Cloths In The Philadelphia Port Of History Museum, Lisa Aronson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The Port of History Museum in Philadelphia houses a collection of textiles characteristic of the types the French were trading with Africa between 1880 and 1900 in the early stages of European colonial rule within that continent.¹ The collection emerged in the era of "cotton imperialism1 when Europeans began competing with African cloth industries by importing their own cloths to Africa. (Johnson) The economic historian Hopkins reports that by the turn of the century textiles constituted "about a third of the value of total imports into French West Africa and about a quarter of total imports in British West …

Trade In Hispanic Weavings Of Northern New Mexico And The Social Construction Of Tradition!, Suzanne Baizerman

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

No discussion of late 20th century trade in textiles - particularly trade in what has been called "regional" or "ethnic" textiles - would be complete without a discussion of the terms "traditional" and "authentic" for these terms inform even a lay person's evaluation of textiles on the market today.

As textile professionals, we encounter terms like "textile tradition," "traditional textiles" or even "authentic traditional textiles" in our everyday experience: a textile brought back by a collector from travel to a Third World nation or a textile on display in a museum. These textiles are subjected to discussions of their authenticity, …

Reconstructing The Ancient Aegean/Egyptian Textile Trade, Elizabeth Barber

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

For years archaeologists have commented on the occurrence of typically Aegean patterns on the ceilings of a fair number of Egyptian tombs, while musing that they could not see how such patterns were reaching Egypt. Certainly Minoan and Mycenaean potsherds had been found in fair numbers in Egypt; but the designs on the Egyptian ceilings were not the ones used by Aegean potters. To me, however, the particular patterns and layouts seemed strongly reminiscent of weaving —a craft I was quite familiar with, unlike most archaeologists, because my mother was a weaver. If the source of these ceiling patterns were …

Indian Trade Cloth In Egypt: The Newberry Collection, Ruth Barnes

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The Department of Eastern Art in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, holds what is undoubtedly one of the largest single collections of block-printed textiles produced in India, but exported to Egypt as part of the medieval Islamic Indian Ocean trade. These textiles, all now mere fragments, are of particular interest for two reasons. Firstly, fabrics of this type give us the earliest surviving examples of Indian weaving, although single fibre fragments have been found at the Indus Valley site of Mohenjo-Daro, dating to the second millenium B.C. , and we have numerous Vedic references to dress and textiles, as well as …

Labor Organization And Textile Trade In Northern Thailand In The Nineteenth Century, Katherine A. Bowie

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The Thai peasant economy has frequently been characterized as a "subsistence economy" in which villagers planted their own rice and wove their own clothing. The uncritical use of the phrase "subsistence economy" has contributed to a series of significant misunderstandings about the character of the Thai peasant political economy, including the social process of cloth production.¹

Because most scholars have assumed that obtaining clothing was not a problem for villagers, they have tended to minimize the significance of differences in dress between rich and poor in traditional nineteenth century Thai society. I believe that a better understanding of the …

Contents- Textiles In Trade- 1990

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

CONTENTS

Preface

A Brief History of the Textile Society of America. Milton Sonday

Speakers

Keynote Address: Silk in European and American Trade before 1783: A Commodity of Commerce or Frivolous Luxury? Natalie Rothstein

British Exports to the USA, 1776-1914: Organization and Strategy.

The British Linen Trade with the United States in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Negley Harte

Transatlantic Trade in Woollen Cloth 1850-1914: The Role of Shoddy. David T. Jenkins

Cottons and Printed Textiles. Stanley Chapman

The American Market for Indian Textiles, 1785-1820: In the Twilight of Traditional Cloth Manufacture. Susan S. Bean

The Manufacture and Trade of Luxury …

British Exports To The U.S.A., 1776–1914: Organisation And Strategy, (3) Cottons And Printed Textiles, Stanley Chapman

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Introduction

One of the most familiar concepts to historians interested in Anglo-American topics is that of the Atlantic Economy. Political independence did not bring economic independence to the newly-found United States, and until after the middle of the nineteenth century trans-Atlantic trade continued much as it was in the colonial period, based on the exchange of primary produce for manufactured goods. Basic statistics confirm that Britain and the United States were each the major trading partner of the other in the first half of the nineteenth century. In this period, between a third and a half of all United States …

The Role Of The Middleman In The Trade Of Real Madras Handkerchief (Madras Plaids), Sandra Lee Evenson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The Kalahari people live and work in the Niger delta of southern Nigeria. There are some twenty-two Kalahari island settlements dispersed among the Santa Barbera, Santa Bartholomew, Sombreiro, and New Calabar Rivers (Jones: 1963, Daly: 1983) with Buguma, Abonnema, and Bakana their most recognized commercial and cultural centers; though, many Kalahari are employed in the more homogeneous city of Port Harcourt. (Daly: 1983)

Their location on the Niger delta favoured an economy based on fishing and trade. Originally, the Kalahari traded up-river for vegetables and grain in exchange for salt and fish. They also traded across the delta, most notably …

Trade And The Post War Textile Industry In The United States, Lynn Felsher

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

A large portion of textiles designed for the United States are no longer being made in this country. Instead they are manufactured in Europe, the Pacific Rim, including Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, the Philippines, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean.

The initial design source of these textiles may still be the United States, but even this in light of my current research is ambiguous. I intend to show several textiles which though made for the U.S. market were not manufactured in this country. Their provenance is based upon interviews conducted with the textiles' designers, the country of origin labels …

Preface- 1990, Mattiebelle Gittinger, Rita J. Adrosko

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

"The Textile Society of America provides a forum for the exchange and dissemination of information about the historic, cultural, socio-economic, artistic, and technical aspects of textiles." One of the ways the society addresses this mission is in its biennial symposium and the promise of quick publication of the papers presented

Although the name of the organization may suggest a Western Hemisphere orientation its membership is international and the topics for presentation global in their selection.

The themes selected for the biennial symposium are weighed with a keen eye on their ability to provide a matrix for many disciplines-those of the …

Local Textile Trading Systems In Indonesia: An Example From Flores Island, Roy W. Hamilton

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Several of the papers presented at this symposium deal with the trade of textiles over long distances, from one continent to another. Such trade systems undeniably had tremendous impact on the societies involved, but in many parts of the world individuals and communities are bound together in much smaller circles of trade that are equally formative. In this paper I will discuss a tiny network of textile trade that involves the carrying of cloth to neighboring villages over mountain paths and along surf-swept beaches. Trading systems on this scale are as much the rule as the exception and our understanding …

The British Linen Trade With The United States In The Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries, N.B. Harte

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In the eighteenth century, a great deal of linen was produced in the American colonies. Virtually every farming family spun and wove linen cloth for its own consumption. The production of linen was the most widespread industrial activity in America during the colonial period. Yet at the same time, large amounts of linen were imported from across the Atlantic into the American colonies. Linen was the most important commodity entering into the American trade. This apparently paradoxical situation reflects the importance in pre-industrial society of the production and consumption of the extensive range of types of fabrics grouped together as …

Textiles In The Tourist Trade: Woollen Textile Production In Momostenango, Guatemala, Anne M. Lambert

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

INTRODUCTION

Textile production in Guatemala has been the focus of a considerable amount of twentieth century literature in the English language. Guatemalan textiles have been avidly collected by museums, universities and private collectors in North America and Europe. Our belief as researchers and collectors is that we are recording and preserving the valuable textile traditions of the indigenous people of Guatemala.

What we often don't realize is that collectively, over time, we are saying as much about our own perspective as outsiders as we are about the Guatemalan people and their textiles. Our choices of what to document and what …

Allegories Unveiled: European Sources For A Safavid Velvet, Mary Anderson Mcwilliams

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Woven in Iran during the seventeenth century, the magnificent velvet that is the subject of this paper (figure 1) testifies to the splendor of the reign of the Safavid Shahs (1501-1722). A curious blending of Persian and European elements, it features four women holding various objects against the backdrop of a flowering landscape.

The figures stand along the weft axis. The fragment in figure 1, from the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York, features a full technical repeat unit, measuring over seven feet in warp direction, and 28 inches, or the full loom width, in weft direction. For …

The Manufacture And Trade Of Luxury Textiles In The Age Of Mercantilism, Elisabeth Mikosch

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

When Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's minister for finance and economic affairs, said: "Fashion is to France what gold mines are to the Spaniards," (quoted by Minchinton 1977,112) he recognized how significant the manufactory of fashionable luxury textiles was for the economy of France. During the seventeenth and eighteenth century many absolutist rulers of Europe who pursued mercantilist policies fostered the production and trade of expensive textiles.

Tremendous resources went into the making of woven silks, lace, tapestries, fine embroideries and table linens. The best designers and craftsmen were employed who used the most valued materials, such as silk, precious metals …

The Impact Of The Mediterranean Silk Trade On Western Europe Before 1200 A.D., Anna Maria Muthesius

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Introduction

Silk, trade and politics were common spokes in an intricate wheel, propelling Mediterranean influence towards the West. At a time when Western Europe lacked the ability to manufacture silk cloth, Eastern silken stuffs were eagerly sought for secular and ecclesiastical purposes. Byzantium in particular, in return for silks, demanded Western military and naval aid, and her silk trade concessions bore the hallmark of powerful political bargaining counters. The survival of more than one thousand silks in church treasuries of Western Europe, provides unspoken insights into the complex impact of Mediterranean silk trade on the West before 1200 A.D. The …

Toba Batak Textile Inventions, Sandra A. Niessen

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

INTRODUCTION

This article focuses on fruits of looms worked by Toba Batak weavers in the Silindung Valley, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Silindung Valley weavings are characteristically bright and fashionable. They are described by the Batak themselves and by visitors from outside as the "least traditional" of Batak woven goods. They are also surging in popularity throughout all of Toba and increasingly making inroads into the market replacing the old-style textiles which are larger, of coarser yarn, and deeper/sober in colour. It is the modern style of Batak textile which today commands the highest prices locally. "Connoisseurs" of Indonesian textiles, however, usually …

Silk In European And American Trade Before 1783: A Commodity Of Commerce Or A Frivolous Luxury?, Natalie Rothstein

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This outline is taken from ray as yet unpublished book on The English Silk Industry 1700-1825, and especially from the chapters on raw silk and the distribution of the woven material. In addition, I have widened the scope for this talk to discuss the subject more generally. In terms of general economic history the quantities of silk produced and sold are minuscule but there are a lot of instructive points to be made which are of general importance - as well as some very pretty objects. The latter are "documents" in the French sense as well as works of art …

The Harket For Domestic And Imported Textiles In Sixteenth Century Istanbul, Yvonne J. Seng

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

INTRODUCTION

When one thinks of Ottoman textile trade, the city of Bursa immediately comes to mind. As the Ottoman capital at the end of the fourteenth century/ it was known for its flourishing silk industry which exported fine brocades and velvets to Europe and the East. As it expanded, it fostered a secondary market in which Persian merchants exchanged a large part of the raw silk they carried to supply local weavers for European woolens as well as the Bursa silk fabrics. By the end of the fifteenth century, its fabrics were being exported to northern Europe: both the Russian …