An Adventure Into Silk
A Look Back at New England Silk Production
by Patricia L. Cummings
photos by James Cummings
part of one of the two
concurrent silk exhibits, March 2003
Exciting Exhibit at Smith College Museum of Art
The first symposium in a series of meetings about silk,
sponsored by the Smith College Museum of Art, occurred March 28-30, 2003.
The current exhibit which will be available for all to see until June 15,
includes both plain and fancy silk dresses, a Log Cabin wall hanging in
which the silk “logs” appear to be less than ¼” wide, a “contained” crazy
quilt with the center block dated 1888, silk quilted petticoats, a silk
kimono, and a silk and wool on linen framed embroidery. In addition, there
are oil paintings which depict various individuals wearing silk garments,
and a display of silk-related ephemera. The exhibit is the result of the
hard work and dedication of students and faculty alike, and the kind sharing
of items by a number of museums.
Opening Day Events
On opening day of the exhibit, “Silk in New England Society, 1730-1930,” curated by Madelyn Shaw, a number of knowledgeable artisans were on hand to provide demonstrations of silk weaving, using both a small table loom and a much larger Jacquard loom, built by students. As people milled about the demonstrations, taking notes and asking questions, the art of dyeing silk was explained, as well as how silk is extracted from the cocoon. At one table, large poster board displays catalogued the life cycle of the caterpillar that produces the most luxuriant natural fiber known to man.
Symposium attendees, on their lunch break, were perusing
the many items in the main exhibit area. There is no charge to visit the
exhibit, and an exhibition catalog is available at nominal cost ($5.00) in
the museum gift shop.
Northampton’s Silk Industries
Hand painted/hand quilted silk quilt, showing the Northampton Silk Route
At the nearby Northampton Museum, a concurrent exhibit called “From Mulberry to Manufacturing: Northampton Builds an Industry” takes up almost the entire floor space of the historic museum. Curated by Alena Shumway, this exhibit will be available until September 14, 2003. The exhibit is free to the general public but donations are happily accepted.
A result of the Northampton Silk Project, the displays
are the culmination of six years’ work by students, teachers, artists,
historians, museum personnel, scientists, and former silk industry workers.
The many silk related items on display are a testimonial to the history of
the silk mills that made Northampton a prime and thriving industrial center
for domestic silk production for one hundred years. Silk dresses, including
a wedding gown, are featured, as well as examples of locally produced silk
ribbons. One of the ribbons, dated 1882, is an example of a “fondu” ribbon
in various gradations of the color pink. We sometimes see this kind of
ribbon in Crazy Quilts. This style of printing also occurred in cloth.
Metallic Additives Cause Silk to Shatter
One of the garments on display was severely frayed and was purposefully shown in its ragged condition to make the point that tin salt additives were the cause of many disintegrating silks. The addition of metallic salts at the same time that mordants were added (in the dyeing process) was the custom in Victorian times. The salts stiffened the cloth and made a dress rustle as a lady entered the room. The prime reason for adding the salts was to make the cloth weigh more. Since silk was sold by the pound, this resulted in more profit to businessmen. Silk, in an unaltered state, is the strongest fiber known to man. I once read that a strand of silk has more tensile strength than a strand of steel, the same diameter. As witnessed by both the Smith College exhibit and the Northampton displays, much older (pre-Victorian) silks have borne the test of time without fraying or splitting.
Domestic silk production was an experiment dependent on the importation and planting of mulberry trees. Mulberry leaves are the only food eaten by the caterpillars which make silk. The first Northampton silk mill opened in 1834, and the last one saw its demise in the Great Depression. None were left by 1940. Like other mills in the northeast in the nineteenth century, the silk mills were not immune to labor strikes. In addition, companies changed hands frequently. Nonotuck Silk Company produced one of the finest silk threads in the world, the “Corticelli” brand, and even won prizes at the Centennial Exposition of 1876.
Examples of silk hats, silk dress goods, silk stockings, and silk worsted yarn for knitting are just some of the other products to be seen in the exhibit. One of the factors that led to the demise of local silk production was the popularity of rayon, a fiber dubbed “artificial silk” that became a stiff competitor for silk in 1926.
A beautiful addition to the display is a silk quilt which was designed and hand painted by Sally Dillon and hand quilted by Janet Hale in 2002.
More information about the Northampton Silk Project can be found at the website: http://www.smith.edu/hsc/silk
©Copyright 2004, Patricia L. Cummings and James Cummings, Quilter's Muse Publications, Concord, NH. For inquiries, please direct e-mail to: pat@quiltersmuse.com