The Winterthur Library

 The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur, Delaware  19735

Telephone: 302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883

 

 

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

 

Creator:         [none]

Title:               Fabric swatches and documents,

Dates:             1833-1885.

Call No.:         Col. 637         

Acc. No.:        01x151

Quantity:        4 boxes

Location:        39 F 6

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

 

Most of the items in this collection are associated with David Sands Brown.  He was born near Dover, New Hampshire, on July 27, 1800, to Abigail Peaslee and William Brown.  In 1817, David moved to Philadelphia, and subsequently to Gloucester City, New Jersey, where he died on July 6, 1877.  In Gloucester City, he became involved in a number of businesses over the years, several of which were manufacturers or printers of cotton textile fabrics.  Among these businesses were the Washington Manufacturing Co. (or Washington Mills, specializing in the manufacture of white cotton goods), the Gloucester Print Works (which dyed, bleached, and printed the textiles made by the Washington Mills), Gloucester Manufacturing Co. (which printed calico), Gloucester Gingham Mills (which made finer grades of gingham), and the Ancona Printing Co. (which printed cottons that came to be called Dolly Vardens).  Archibald M. Graham was a superintendent at the Gloucester Print Works and a manger of the Ancona Printing Co.  Brown and his mills are discussed in the book New Jersey Quilts 1777 to 1950, by the Heritage Quilt Project of New Jersey.

 

The Eddystone Manufacturing Company of Chester, Pennsylvania, was founded in 1844 by William Simpson, who later took his sons into partnership with him.  The company was known for the quality of its printed Eddystone cottons and for its mourning fabrics.  A community called Eddystone grew up around the mill buildings located on Chester Creek.  The business was still thriving in 1883, and proud of the library/lecture hall it had built for its employees, called the Eddystone Lighthouse.

 

Mrs. Reverdy Johnson was born Mary Mackall Bowie.  She married the Maryland lawyer and politician Reverdy Johnson on November 16, 1819.  The Johnsons had 15 children.  The millinery business of Catherine Lawson was located at 17 Park Place, New York City, in the 1840s and early 1850s.

 

Other people and firms represented in this collection are as follows: Thomas Evans, in Philadelphia in 1833, was probably the man who had a dry goods store at 134 N. 4th St., although he was possibly the tailor at 135 N. Front.  Randolph and Richardson were commission merchants at 40 High St. in Philadelphia in 1841.  Sharp, Haines & Co. (Lindley Haines, Joseph W. Sharp, Charles E. Wilkins, William L. Sharp) was a dry goods store at 19 S. 2d St. and 1 Blackhorse Alley in Philadelphia in 1859.  Laing & Maginnis (Henry M. Laing and Edward J. Maginnis) sold shoe findings at 30 N. 3d St. in Philadelphia in 1874.

 

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

A collection containing more than one thousand textile swatches, most dated 1863 or 1872, plus some other miscellaneous documents which relate to textiles, 1833-1874.  The swatches include stripes, solids, and floral and geometric prints, ranging in size from thumbnail size to a piece that is 19 inches by 36 inches.  Many of the swatches are associated with the Ancona Printing Co. of Gloucester City, New Jersey; the notes attached to these swatches were addressed to the company’s manager Archibald M. Graham, are dated 1872, and were possibly written by David S. Brown, the owner of the company.  The 1863 designs may have been from one of Brown’s other textile mills.  The collection includes three different sets of swatches that came with wrappers around them.  One of the wrappers was labeled E. Potter & Co., but the other wrappers were not marked.  (Two other wrappers were found loose, but it was impossible to determine what fabrics they once included.)

 

As well, the collection contains other documents related to textiles.  More than a dozen watercolors are designs for printed fabrics; included with these are several samples of hand colored designs on top of printed fabrics.   There are two printed labels for fabrics, one for Downright Gingham, manufactured by David S. Brown, and the other a colored label for Laurel Lake Cottons.  This label depicts an Indian woman paddling a canoe, with tepees and mountains in the background.  Among the miscellaneous bills and correspondence about textiles is a letter from Mrs. Reverdy Johnson of Maryland, to Catherine Lawson, a milliner in New York, to which Mrs. Johnson has pinned a swatch of the fabric for which she desires a matching hat.  There are two price lists, a blank, undated list from Philadelphia, listing such fabrics as Waltham shirtings, Lancaster sheetings, and other fabrics from Dover, Blackstone, Coventry, Georgia, Providence M. Co., Dorchester, United M. Co., Samuel Slater’s plaids and stripes, woolens (cloth, cassimeres, satinets, flannels, and bockings), and Philadelphia Weaver’s Goods, including Wilmington stripes, tickings, denims, and cords.  The list also provides space for the prices of different kinds of  wool and raw cotton (Sea Island, Louisiana, Alabama, Upland, Tennessee, and Roanoke), indigo, linseed oil, flour, grain, and starch.  The other price list, for 1853 and 1854, is from Manchester, England, and lists prices for yarn, and for grey, white, and turkey-red goods.

 

Other items in the collection document activities as follows: the Leeds, England, firm of Titley, Tathams & Walker shipped thread to Philadelphia in 1833 and 1874.  Two shipping receipts show that table cloths and other linen fabrics were imported from Belfast, Ireland, by Philadelphia merchants.  In 1843, Eckel, Spangler, & Raiguel of Philadelphia sold a large variety of textiles and clothing accessories to Fry & Rambo, including flannel, gingham, net, edging, lace, lawn, ribbons, bandanas, stocks, silk cord, table cloths, buttons, alpaca, drilling, cassimere, and other goods.  In 1856, David S. Brown purchased goods from the American Print Works, the items being shipped from Fall River, Massachusetts.  The American Print Works was still in business in 1875, as evidenced by an advertising postcard.

 

A document filed by the Eddystone Manufacturing Co. of Chester, Pennsylvania, with its insurance company includes a drawing of the buildings and two diagrams indicating the placement of the different departments, such as the dye house, steaming house, bleaching room, engraved rolls storage room, etc.  The document also includes a description of the various buildings and lists fire appliances.  These documents are stamped with the date March 9, 1885.

 

           

ORGANIZATION

 

Arranged by type of document, and by size.

 

 

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

 

The materials are in English.

 

 

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

 

Collection is open to the public.  Copyright restrictions may apply.

           

 

PROVENANCE

 

Purchased from Jan Whitlock.

 

 

RELATED MATERIALS

 

The Hagley Museum library also has materials relating to the Eddystone Manufacturing Co. of Chester, Pennsylvania.

           

 

ACCESS POINTS

 

            People:

                        Brown, David Sands, 1800-1877.

                        Johnson, Mary Mackall Bowie, (Mrs. Reverdy).

                        Graham, Archibald M.

 

Topics:

American Print Works (Fall River, Mass.)

Ancona Printing Co. (Gloucester City, N.J.)

Eckel, Spangler, & Raiguel.

Eddystone Manufacturing Company (Chester, Penn.)

E. Potter & Co.

Titley, Tathams & Walker.

 

Cotton.

Cotton fabrics - New Jersey.

Cotton fabrics - Prices - 19th century.

Dress accessories - Prices - 19th century.

Imports.

Indians - Pictorial works.

Hats.

Labels.

Linen - Prices.

Textile design.

Textile fabrics - Specimens.

Textile fabrics - Prices - 19th century.

Textile fabrics - Labeling.

Textile fabrics - New Jersey.

Textile factories - Pennsylvania - Chester.

Textile industry.

Textile manufacturers - New Jersey.

Thread - Prices.

Wool.

 

Correspondence.

Insurance policies.      

                        Price lists.

Shipping records.

                        Watercolors.

                        Industrialists.

                        Merchants.

Milliners.

                       

 

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

 

Location: 39 F 6

 

 

Box 1: swatches

 

Folder 1:          swatches in a packet, with wrapper marked E. Potter & Co.

 

Folders 2-3:     swatches in packets, wrappers unmarked

 

Folder 4:          fabric swatches (some solids)

 

Folder 5:          fabric swatches (mostly floral prints)

 

Folders 6-8:     fabric swatches

 

 

 

Box 2: swatches and documents

 

Folder 1: watercolors of fabric designs

                                    (most of the designs are on paper, but a few are on fabric)

 

Folder 2: textile fabric labels:

                                    Downright Gingham, manufactured by David S. Brown, Gloucester, New Jersey; (black and white, with decorative border; upper left corner is torn off; design submitted by Samuel Raby to the Librarian of Congress, 1871);

 

                                    Laurel Lake Cottons; (color picture of a Native American woman paddling a canoe, with tepees and mountains in background; part of right and bottom edges have broken off)

 

Folder 3: correspondence and documents (by date, with undated items at beginning):

                                   

Labels detached from packets of swatches, not able to determine to which packets they belong;

 

                                    Letter, Mrs. Reverdy Johnson, Baltimore, 17 Oct., no year, to Mrs. Lawson, Park Place, New York: orders hat for daughter and attaches swatch of her pelisse so hat can be made to coordinate; found a hat for herself in Baltimore; also orders a work cape and an evening headdress;

 

                                    “Prices Current of Domestic Goods, Philadelphia”: lists a number of different kinds of fabrics, but no prices are given;

 

                                    Bill from Eckel, Spangler & Raiguel, Philadelphia, Sept. 13, 1843, to Fry & Rambo, no place, for a long list of different kinds of fabrics, ribbons, bandanas, handkerchiefs, stocks, cords, cotton spools, table cloths, buttons, etc.

 

                                    Bill from Titley, Tathams & Walker, Leeds, Sept. 28, 1833, to Thomas Evans, [no place given], for shoe hemp, patent thread, closing line, etc., to be shipped on Susquehanna; bill is illustrated with view of Water Hall Mill; the company were flax spinners & manufacturers of patent-thread, linens, shoe-thread, canvas, sacking, bags, sacks, &c.;

 

                                    “Invoice of Eleven Packages Linen Goods shipped via Liverpool for Philadelphia addressed to Messrs Randolph & Richardson,” shipped by John Crouch & Co. of Belfast, with two pages of documentation from the U.S. Consul in Belfast, Feb. 18, 1841;

 

                                    “Manchester Prices Current.” Issued by Heugh, Balfour & Co., Aug. 24, 1854; prices for grey, white and Turkey-red goods, and yarn; (prices are in shillings and pence)

 

                                    Invoice of cases of prints consigned to David S. Brown & Co., Philadelphia, on account of American Print Works, Fall River, April 15, 1856; with a short letter: the company can sell what fabrics they do not want to someone in New York;

 

                                    Invoice of goods shipped by Richardson Sons & Owden, Belfast, to Sharp Haines & Co., Philadelphia, May 9, 1859; on thin paper attached to a yellow wrapper; illustrated with a view of Glenmore Bleach Green; the Belfast firm was a company of flax spinners, manufacturers, and bleachers;

 

                                    Bill from Titley, Tathams & Walker, Leeds, July 30, 1874, to Laing & Maginnis, Philadelphia, for shoe hemp, closing line, etc.; attached is a document from the U.S. consul at Leeds;

bill is illustrated with view of the company’s buildings; the company were flax spinners & manufacturers of patent linen thread, shoe thread, canvas, sacking, twines, bags, sacks, &c.;

 

postcard addressed to Isaac Taylor, Pittsburgh, Pa., with message: “The American Print Works will make a closing price for their Dark Work, on Monday morning Oct. 11th, 1875.”  From Low, Harriman & Co., agents, 65 Worth Street, N.Y.   The price 7 ½ ¢ is added in pencil.

 

 

Folder 4: mounted swatches and notes about textile fabrics, 1863

 

            Nothing certain is known about the origins of these samples and notes, although possibly they were from one of the firms owned by David S. Brown.  Two sheets have notes that were added later which identify those samples as being cottons from Fall River that were sold by David S. Brown.  Notes includes a “rough chart for the spring campaign in the prints of the [illegible]”; a page headed “Engraving”; and a list of the “cylinders required.”

 

Folder 5: mounted fabric swatches, some with notes, 1872

 

            These came from the Ancona Printing Co. one of the firms owned by David S. Brown, which was managed by Archibald Graham.

 

Folder 6: mounted fabric swatches, some with notes, 1872

 

            These were in a separate envelope from those in folder 5, but have the same origin.

 

 

 

Box 3: rolls of fabric swatches

 

            Four rolls of swatches which came stitched together.  Ask for help from the library staff with unrolling and re-rolling these.

 

 

 

Box 4: swatches and insurance policy

 

Folders 1-2: large fabric swatches

Folder 3: Eddystone Manufacturing Co. insurance papers, 1885

 

            A printed document filed by the Eddystone Manufacturing Co. of Chester, Pennsylvania, with the Crescent Insurance Company. Includes a drawing of the buildings, and two diagrams indicating the placement of the different departments, such as the dye house, steaming house, bleaching room, engraved rolls storage room, etc.  The document also includes a description of the various buildings and lists fire appliances.  These documents are stamped with the date March 9, 1885.