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:         Verity, Kirk, 1870-1968.                               

Title:               Student notebooks with weaving drafts and designs

Dates:             1883-1937

Call No.:         Col. 977

Acc. No.:        2017x128

Quantity:        9 volumes and a folder of loose items

Location:        39 G 7

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

 

Kirk Verity was a designer for woolen textiles.  He was born in Bramley, Leeds, England, the son of Sarah Young and John Verity, and lived at The Billingbauk.  The Verity family owned a textile mill in the Bramley area.  Kirk attended the Yorkshire College (now Leeds University) and went into the textile business as a designer.  In 1907, Kirk Verity immigrated to the United States, and lived in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maine.  He worked for the French River Textile Co. (Mechanicsville, Conn.), Arlington Mills, Bolton Worsted Mills, the American Woolen Co., and other companies.  In 1912, he married Miriam Tate.  He became a naturalized citizen in 1919 while living in Lawrence, Mass.  He died in 1968.

 

Miriam Tate was born in Armley, Leeds, England, in 1880, the daughter of Grace E. Bannister and Joseph Tate.  She was a typist and stenographer and arrived in Boston in 1912.  She and Kirk had a son Joseph Kirk Verity, who was born in Boston in 1914 and died in 1975.  He graduated from the Philadelphia Textile School in 1937, and became an assistant styler for the American Woolen Company in New York City.  After military service during World War II, Joseph worked for Drycor Felt Company in New Jersey and Connecticut.  Joseph married Margaret Anna Maule (1911-2004), the daughter of Hanna Brown Jackson and Charles Edwin Maude.  Both Joseph and Margaret died in Connecticut but are buried at Sadsbury Friends Meeting House near Christiana, Pennsylvania. 

 

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

A collection of volumes which were kept by Kirk Verity and his son Joseph Verity when they were textile students, Kirk at the Yorkshire College in Leeds, and Joseph at the Philadelphia Textile School.   Kirk’s volumes include a two volumes of weaving drafts, two notebooks pertaining to worsteds, a notebook on miscellaneous textile production topics, textile designs, and notes about colors.  Joseph’s volume is from a class in which he analyzed woven fabrics to determine the types of yarns or thread and the weaving drafts used to produce those fabrics.

 

An outlier to the collection is a collection of dye recipes which was created in 1883, apparently in the United States.  At a later time, Kirk Verity acquired the volume and he attributed it to Professor J. W. Smith.  Smith recorded what he dyed (quite a number of hats) and the recipes used to achieve his colors.

 

           

ORGANIZATION

 

The volumes are arranged first by creator, and then by date.

 

 

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

 

The materials are in English.

 

 

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

 

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

           

 

PROVENANCE

 

Gift of the American Textile History Museum, which received them from the widow of Joseph Kirk Verity.           

 

 

ACCESS POINTS

 

Topics:

            Yorkshire College.

Philadelphia Textile School.  

Victoria Mill (Bramley, Leeds, England)

 

Color in the textile industries - Study and teaching.

Dyes and dyeing - Hats.

Dyes and dyeing - Study and teaching.

Industries - England - Yorkshire.

Textile design - Study and teaching.

Textile fabrics - Specimens.

Textile schools - England - Leeds.

Textile schools - Pennsylvania - Philadelphia.

Weaving - Patterns.

Weaving - Study and teaching.

Woolen and worsted weaving - Study and teaching.

Bramley (Leeds, England) - Industries.

Notebooks.

Swatches.

Weaving drafts.

 

            Additional authors:

                        Verity, Joseph Kirk, 1914-1975.

                        Smith, J. W., Professor.

 

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

 

Location: 39 G 7

 

 

2017x128.1     a slightly oversize volume of weaving drafts, compiled by Kirk Verity, 1891.  The drafts are numbered, and some include additional information.  Several swatches of cloth are also included.

                                    This is a smaller version of the volume below.  The graph paper used was printed by J. Broadbent & Co. of Huddersfield.

                                    In 1927, Verity added his name and address in North Berwick, Maine, in two places. 

                                    (ATHM 0022.362.4)

 

2017x128.2     oversize volume of weaving drafts, reported to have been used in the Verity family textile mill in Bramley, Leeds, England.  The drafts are numbered, and a very few include some additional information.  Several swatches of cloth are also included.

                                    Although Kirk Verity did not write his name in this volume, it is similar enough to the volume above (acc. 2017x128.1) to confirm that he kept this one as well.

                                    (ATHM 0022.362.5)

 

2017x128.3     Verity, Kirk.  Workbook on worsteds, 1885.

                                    Title page of volume: The Textile Designer’s Plan Book, arranged by Professor J. Beaumont, Textile Department, The Yorkshire College, Leeds.

The volume opens with a charts and rules about worsted yarns, including numbers of skeins to the drahm and number of hanks in ten pounds of wool.  Most of the volume is filled with weaving drafts, peg plans, and notes about them.  Three fabric swatches are in the volume as well.  A page from a 1929 issue of Textile World is taped into the volume, evidence of Verity’s continuing use of the volume.

                                    WARNING: Some pages are stuck together because of adhesive tape.  DO NOT attempt to force these pages apart.

                                    In 1927, Verity added his name and address in North Berwick, Maine.        (ATHM 0022.362.1)

 

2017x128.4     Verity, Kirk.  Lecture notes at The Yorkshire College, 1887-1893.

                                    As with the volume above, Verity added his name and address in North Berwick, Maine, in 1927. 

                                    Label on front of volume: Cut checking patterns, stitching cloths, dissecting, finishing, scouring, carding, condensing, jacquard calculat., spinning, combing, wages for weaving & spinning, lists, hand loom statement.

                                    Label inside front cover: stitching cloths, dissecting, finishing, carding, condensing & links for looms, jacquard calcutions [sic]., spinning, combing & name of part of machine.

                                    Lecture notes on the topics mentioned in the labels, with some sketches of textile machinery and weaving drafts as well.

                                    Kirk’s sister Lucy seems to have been responsible for the pencil sketches at the end of the volume.

                                    (ATHM 0022.362.2)

 

 

2017x128.5     Verity, Kirk.  Notes for third year evening designing class, 1890-1891.

                                    Title page of volume: The Textile Designers Drawing & Colour Book, arranged by J. Beaumont, Instructor in Textile Industries in the Yorkshire College of Science, Leeds.

                                    Notebook includes many colored and penciled designs for textiles, plus notes about different kinds of patterned (or figured) textiles, instructions for transferring sketches onto point [graph] paper, methods for enlarging figures, shading etc., and a few weaving drafts.  Most of the textile designs are florals; a couple include animals.

Attached to a page at the end of the volume is a printed permit issued by Yorkshire College for Verity to attend a class.

(ATHM 0022.362.3)

 

2017x128.6     Verity, Kirk, Color Book & etc., 1894.

                                    Title page of volume: The Textile Designers’ Drawing & Colour Book, arranged by the late John Beaumont, formerly professor of Textile Industries at the Yorkshire College, Leeds.  Tipped into the volume is an advertisement for textile works by Professor Roberts Beaumont.

                                    Verity’s notes on colors and on weaving colors.  Includes some weaving drafts, simple designs, and color charts.

(ATHM 0022.362.6)

 

2017x128.7     [Verity, Kirk.]  Worsted notes, 1904-1907.

                                    Volume includes a number of price lists for different yarn or textile production processes, such as spinning, dressing, and twisting, including for cotton and for worsteds.  As well, the volume includes formulas for calculating weights of fabrics, weekly production, wages, etc.; and miscellaneous other notes pertaining to textile production.

(ATHM 0022.362.8)

 

2017x128.8     Smith, J. W. (Professor).  Daybook a/c goods delivered; daybook on dyeing, 1883.

                                    It is not known who Prof. J.W. Smith was, but he must have been an American because the volume was acquired from J.L. Fairbanks & Co., stationers, Boston [Mass.]

                                    Accounts of dyeing, apparently done by Prof. J.W. Smith.  The first pages of the volume have been removed; next are found a few weaving drafts and a textile swatch; then the dyeing accounts begin.  Smith listed the items dyed, such as leghorns [hats], shansee, braid, mackinaw, manillas [more hats], etc.; the color, and the recipe for the dye batch.  About halfway through, Smith wrote notes about setting a vat on July 23, 1883, and included some samples of dyed wool.  These notes continue through Dec. 28.  The volume closes with notes on sulphuric acid, hydrogen sulphate, oxalic acid, etc.

                                    By 1927, Kirk Verity had acquired this volume, but he does not indicate when or from whom; perhaps he was interested in the dye recipes, although he is not known to have been directly involved in dyeing.

(ATHM 0022.362.7)

 

2017x128.9a-g            Verity, Kirk: miscellaneous items.

                                    Two blank forms: Victoria Mill, Bramley, [blank] Dr. to J. Kirk Verity, for weaving, with spaces for date, lot, number, length, rate, and charges.

                                    Two loose weaving drafts with textile swatches attached; these may belong to the sheets described below.

                                    Three sheets, numbered 1-3, with notes about weaving, including two weaving drafts and three textile swatches.  Kirk Verity wrote his name on two of the three sheets.

                                    (ATHM 0022.362.10)

 

2017x128.10a-b          Verity, Joseph Kirk: Weave formation notebook, 1936-1937.

                                    Joseph Verity kept this when he was a student at the Philadelphia Textile School.  This includes a printed form for the analysis of textiles, including type of yarn or thread used, a weaving draft, detailed sketches about how the weaving was accomplished, and other notes.  Most of the analyses included a textile swatch.

                                    Also a separate sheet with weaving drafts of many different designs.

                                    The analyses are on forms printed for the Philadelphia Textile School.

                                    (ATHM 0022.362.9)