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1/2007. 320 pages. 100 b/w photos, & illus., 12 color photos
0896725898
978-0-89672-589-8

American Silk, 1830-1930: Entrepreneurs and Artifacts

By Jacqueline Field, Marjorie Senechal, and Madelyn Shaw

“American Silk, 1830-1930 is the story of struggle, innovation, and the success and failure of three silk companies. Despite developing innovative technology and marketing strategies to meet the demand for silk from a growing middle class, the early industry was plagued by problems obtaining raw materials; later the development of artificial silk made it hard to compete. This is an important addition to textile, business, and industrial history.”—Adrienne Hood, author of The Weaver’s Craft

“Silk conjures the exotic, the precious, and the labor of handwork. With this groundbreaking study the little known story of silk joins those of cotton and wool as an important aspect of America’s rich textile heritage. In this masterful work Field, Senechal, and Shaw show us how American entrepreneurial ingenuity made possible large-scale silk production and the creation of a once-thriving industry.”—Dennis Fiori, Director, Massachusetts Historical Society

At one time America’s silk industry was the largest in the world. Silk was late to be industrialized, well after cotton and wool. Nonetheless, nineteenth-century American entrepreneurs rapidly built a silk industry with levels of production once unimaginable.

American Silk, 1830–1930 traces the evolution of the American silk industry through three compelling and very different case studies: the Nonotuck Silk Company of Northampton, Massachusetts; the Haskell Silk Company of Westbrook, Maine; and the Mallinson Silk Company of New York and Pennsylvania. The mills specialized in different products, from sewing-machine twist and embroidery threads to mass-produced plain silks and high fashion fabrics.

The case studies span the development of the U.S. silk industry from its beginnings in the 1830s to its decline in the 1930s. Starting in the 1920s with the growth of rayon, the first of the synthetic imitators, the market share for silk shrank, and silk gradually returned to being a luxury at the top of the hierarchy of fabrics. But, for a time, American technological innovations and entrepreneurs succeeded in bringing the pleasure and aesthetic of silk within the reach of more people than ever before.

Jacqueline Field is a former costume curator and professor of textiles and design at Westbrook College. Her recent published articles on dress and textiles include “Dyes, Chemistry, and Clothing: The Influence of World War One on Fabrics, Fashions, and Silk.”

A professor of mathematics and history of science and technology at Smith College, Marjorie Senechal is the author of several books, most recently Silk Unraveled!

Madelyn Shaw curates the costume and textile collection at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. Her most recent publication is “Silk in Georgia, 1732–1840: From Sericulture to Status Symbol.”