Skip to main content Smithsonian Institution

Catalog Data

Measurements:
overall: 1 in x 2 3/8 in x 9 1/2 in; 2.54 cm x 6.0325 cm x 24.13 cm
Object Name:
shears, pruning
shears
Place made:
Japan
Date made:
ca. 1900
Description:
Shears for pruning mulberry trees; used in sericulture in Japan. Transferred from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology sericulture display, July 9, 1912.
At various points in American history, from colonial times onward, people experimented with sericulture - meaning the raising of silkworms and reeling of silk filaments from silkworm cocoons. At first it was hoped that this silk could be shipped to Great Britain for use in its silk textile manufacturing industry. Experiments in the 1760s and after, into the early 20th century, hoped to raise enough silk to support an American silk textile industry. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, efforts in California and other (primarily) western states were supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture with a display in the department's headquarters building in Washington, DC. The display also highlighted the imports of raw silk from Asia, Europe, and the Middle East that most manufacturers used in their products. The contents of the display were transferred to the (then) U.S. National Museum in 1912, for exhibition in the Textile Hall, as educational background for the exhibition of silk textiles manufactured in the US.
Location:
Currently not on view
Credit Line:
Transfer from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1912
ID Number:
TE.T01101.00B
Catalog number:
T01101.00B
T1101
Accession number:
54306
See more items in:
Home and Community Life: Textiles
American Silks
Data Source:
National Museum of American History
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a4-9ad6-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:nmah_648077