<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p>"Spring is pre-eminently the season for ribbons," proclaimed <em>The American Silk Journal</em> in February 1900. As the official trade publication of the American Silk Association, the <em>Journal</em> encouraged the use of ribbons in clothing and accessories to supplement the industry's sales of "tying-up”" ribbons and bows. Ribbons were relatively inexpensive and could be easily changed or added to update a hat or garment. At a time when the Easter Parade really was a stroll down the most fashionable street in town to show off spring finery, silk ribbons were an affordable luxury that let nearly everyone participate.</p><p><img alt="Color illustration. Two tall, thin women stand beside each other in a drawing room. One wears a giant black hat with feathers and lace. The other wears a dark colored hat with a large maroon ribbon bulkily tied around it. Both wear elegant gowns and gloves. One has a fur stole/wrap." class="auto-caption media-image img__fid__21222 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" rel="lightbox" src="https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/1_Journal%20Des%20Demoiselles%201911.jpg?itok=eapSxpQk" style="width: 385px; height: 550px;" title="The well-dressed woman of 1911 wore hats that may have used 10 or 12 yards of ribbon, which is probably what was required to make the many-looped bow on the hat on the right in this fashion illustration found in the February 1, 1911, edition of "Journal Des Demoiselles." Costume Department Library, National Museum of American History."></p><p><img alt="Color postcard with a photo of a factory and a blue sky" class="auto-caption media-image img__fid__21237 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" rel="lightbox" src="https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/CheneyPostcardShaw.jpg?itok=hn_Ozz-h" style="width: 550px; height: 355px;" title="This postcard depicts the Cheney Brothers complex in Connecticut. The museum's collection includes many beautiful examples of ribbon from American manufacturers. The ribbons were donated to the National Museum between October 1913 and November 1914 and later transferred to this museum. Four of America's largest manufacturers donated sample lengths of their products to the (then) National Museum. These included the Cheney Brothers, one of the country's largest silk mills, which was founded in 1838 in South Manchester, Connecticut, and the Taylor-Friedsam Company, which was founded in 1912, with a mill in Paterson, New Jersey, known as America's "Silk City." The two other donors, Smith & Kaufman and Pelgram & Meyer, were established in the late 19th century, also in Paterson."></p><p><img alt="Piece or ribbons showing two pink flowers that may be roses or peonies, with abundant petals. Green leaves surround them. One is lighter pink, the other darker. Both are hazy in appearance." class="auto-caption media-image img__fid__21223 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" rel="lightbox" src="https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/2_T1286%20ribbon.jpg?itok=wl2QqYV2" style="width: 365px; height: 550px;" title="The hazy, watercolor effect of the pink roses in this ribbon was accomplished by printing the design on the warp (lengthwise) threads before weaving the ribbons. This ribbon was donated to the National Museum in 1914 by the Taylor-Friedsam Co."></p><p>Consumers had an almost overwhelming selection of ribbon styles to choose from: glacé, tinsel-edged, ombré, brocade, grosgrain, moiré fancies, luster, ciré, reversibles, panne, chiné, gauze, and changeable are only some of the varieties available. With their bright colors and vast variety, ribbons were often touted as the conscientious choice to make in millinery trimmings over bird feathers. The October 1903 issue of <em>The American Silk Journal</em> described a wide satin ribbon dotted with colorful birds, and noted, "[F]or those who would like to wear proscribed birds, and don't care to run up against the Audubon Society, the idea suggests endless possibilities." The founders of the first (Massachusetts) Audubon Society, Boston socialites Harriet Hemenway and Minna Hall, were inspired to create the organization in 1896 by the vast consumption of many species of birds—whole birds, wings, and plumage—in the creation of women's fashionable headgear.</p><p><img alt="Page from catalog advertising 14 different hats. Three are identified as mourning hats. All the illustrations are in black and white. Each hat has elaborate decorations, including ribbons and feathers." class="auto-caption media-image img__fid__21224 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" rel="lightbox" src="https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/3_Reinerth_1905.jpg?itok=AJXGuf2B" style="width: 426px; height: 550px;" title="William Reinerth was a wholesale millinery firm in New York City. This page from the firm's catalog for its 1905 Fall/Winter line illustrates the many uses to which not only ribbons, but feathers and fabric flowers were put in decorating ladies’ hats."></p><p><img alt="Piece of ribbon with blue and white vertical bands, which are wide." class="auto-caption media-image img__fid__21225 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" rel="lightbox" src="https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/4_T1287_ribbon.jpg?itok=3HSyTl0n" style="width: 440px; height: 550px;" title="This blue and ivory striped grosgrain is one of the simpler ribbons donated to the National Museum in 1913–1914, by Taylor-Friedsam. It has been given a moiré (wavy surface effect) finish by embossing the surface with an engraved copper cylinder after weaving."></p><p>During the first decades of the 20th century, a woman's hat was the most important finishing touch to her ensemble. <em>The Millinery Trade Review—</em>one of several millinery journals to arise in New York around that time—presented an illustrated monthly column by a young man named Ora Cné, a professional millinery "trimmer." One column contained instructions for 18 bows, with descriptive names such as the pineapple, the battle ax, the head of wheat, and the mosquito.</p><p><img alt="Piece of ribbon with horizontal stripes of varying width. They are green, yellow, blue, white, and red." class="auto-caption media-image img__fid__21226 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" rel="lightbox" src="https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/5_T18984_ribbon.jpg?itok=Y1N__UOl" style="width: 395px; height: 550px;" title="Multicolor "Roman Stripe" ribbons of varying widths were popular for sashes and for hat trimmings for tailored or daywear. This example was donated to the National Museum by Pelgram & Meyer in 1914."></p><p>Ribbons weren't just for hats. They were also stitched in rows or patterns on skirts, bodices and sleeves, and threaded through casings and "beaded" edgings on women's voluminous chemises and petticoats. The ribbon counter at a department store or specialty shop sold not only lengths or rolls of ribbon, but novelties made up by the store's "trimmers." Customers could select the ribbon they wanted made up into items such as belts with fancy buckles or shirred garters. Ribbon flower wreaths or sprays, nosegays, and individual blossoms were used in the hair, decorated lapels or necklines, and nestled around the crowns of picture hats.</p><p>Gift novelties such as ribbon-trimmed picture frames and decorative bags, baskets, or boxes made to hold needlework or personal items sold particularly well at Christmas and Easter.</p><p>Enormous hair bows weighed down the heads of little girls, and sashes with equally gigantic bows circled their waists. Beginning in 1907, American ribbon manufacturer Smith & Kaufman marketed sets of pre-cut and packaged ribbons for little girls.</p><p><img alt="Pale green ribbon with white flowers in it, including flowers with large, open petals and flowers that have not opened yet. Many leaves as well." class="auto-caption media-image img__fid__21227 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" rel="lightbox" src="https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/6_T1294_pale_green.jpg?itok=wL-rUA1w" style="width: 368px; height: 550px;" title="This pale green floral damask ribbon, donated to the National Museum by Smith & Kaufmann in 1914, might have been considered suitable for a girl's sash and hair bow. Since it has a complex jacquard-woven pattern but is a single color, it might have fallen in the middle of the company's price range. "></p><p><img alt="Postcard with an image of a smiling little girl wearing a white dress. She has a giant pink bow on her head and on her dress." class="auto-caption media-image img__fid__21228 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" rel="lightbox" src="https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/7_Dorothy_Dainty_postcard.jpg?itok=Yck9DILi" style="width: 364px; height: 550px;" title="In this postcard for Dorothy Dainty ribbons by Smith & Kaufman, a little girl sports a matched set of two Dorothy Dainty bows and a sash. The price range for a set or for an assortment of six hair ribbons ranged from $1.90 up to $10.75 per package, depending on the type of ribbon—plain or fancy—chosen."></p><p>In the 1920s, the new fashions of bobbed hair, tailored hats, sportswear, and tubular silhouettes led to simplified clothing and trimmings and greatly reduced the use of ribbon. Close-fitting, brimless millinery required only a band and perhaps a flat ribbon bow or cockade, not the eight to 10 yards of fancy patterned ribbon on a single hat—or in a single bow—of a decade earlier. In this contracting market, ribbon manufacturers turned to new fibers and manufacturing techniques, or went out of business.</p><p><img alt="Ribbon with two shaded vertical stripes that merge into each other in an ombre, hazy way. Light white/tan to green." class="auto-caption media-image img__fid__21229 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" rel="lightbox" src="https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/8_T1013_ribbon.jpg?itok=yplRpKIT" style="width: 329px; height: 550px;" title="This ombré (shaded) ribbon was created by setting up the warp (lengthwise) threads on the loom so the color ranged from ivory to green. The moiré (wavy) finish was added after weaving by running the ribbons against a copper cylinder engraved with the wavy design. It was donated to the National Museum by Cheney Brothers in 1913."></p><p><img alt="Ribbon with very colorful design, including wavy lines with patterns and flowers. Gold and royal blue are dominant colors, with flecks of pink, yellow, green, and red. Visually busy!" class="auto-caption media-image img__fid__21230 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" rel="lightbox" src="https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/9_T2132_ribbon.jpg?itok=Y-f7nNY_" style="width: 316px; height: 550px;" title="Pelgram & Meyer was one of the oldest and most renowned ribbon manufacturers in Paterson, New Jersey. This blue and bronze ribbon combines two costly elements that also required weavers of great skill: a printed warp and jacquard-woven patterning, 1914."></p><p>These samples donated by four major ribbon manufacturers certainly illustrate the technical skills of the weavers, the artistic skills of the designers, and the importance of these "narrow fabric" manufacturers in the U.S. economy. But they should also remind us of one of the most bitter strikes in American labor history—the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/102paterson/102paterson.htm" target="_blank">Paterson Silk Strike</a> that took place from February to July 1913. The strike took place just months before these silk ribbons came to the Smithsonian. The ribbons illustrated here were, undoubtedly, woven by some of the 10,000 ribbon weavers in New Jersey and New York who had joined the strike by the end of March, but were back at work at the end of July.</p><p>The ribbon weavers' goal in striking was to negotiate an eight-hour day and a rollback on more than a decade of wage cuts. Although the Paterson strike ended in defeat for most of the striking workers, the high level of skill required to weave "fancy" ribbons gave that group a little more leverage in their negotiations; some ribbon firms offered a nine-hour day and a slight wage increase to returning workers.</p><p><a href="https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:wd376996q" target="_blank"><img alt="Stereograph (double) image in black and white. Machinery is shown making ribbons in a long room with tall windows and lamps hanging from ceiling. Factory." class="auto-caption media-image img__fid__21231 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" rel="lightbox" src="https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/1_commonwealth_wd376996q_accessFull.jpg?itok=kPQJ16_c" style="width: 550px; height: 271px;" title=""Weaving taffeta silk ribbons, Paterson, N.J." Photograph. Keystone View Company, 1879. Digital Commonwealth. "></a></p><p><img alt="Illustration in black and yellow of two women both wearing fancy hats. One has a whole wing on her hat. The other has a giant ribbon." class="auto-caption media-image img__fid__21232 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" rel="lightbox" src="https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/Delineator_1913%20%281%29.jpg?itok=hVQH-SPE" style="width: 274px; height: 550px;" title="The women's magazine "The Delineator" illustrated many fashionable uses of silk ribbons in its July 1913 issue. In these three examples, look for the tall wired bow (next to the bird's wing that inspired it) on a hat; wide and narrow ribbon dress bows; a Roman striped sash; and an intricately folded zigzagging hatband, among others."></p><p><img alt="Illustration in black and tan of three women wearing hats. Two carry umbrellas. All three wear gloves and fancy, long dresses. " class="auto-caption media-image img__fid__21233 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" rel="lightbox" src="https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/Delineator_1913%20%283%29.jpg?itok=nMkkMYpm" style="width: 467px; height: 550px;" title="Image from "The Delineator" of July 1913"></p><p><img alt="Illustration of three women wearing hats, mostly in black and tan. One hat has an elaborate feather detail. Another has flowers. The third includes lots of ribbon. There are ribbon details on other pats of the women's dresses as well." class="auto-caption media-image img__fid__21234 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" rel="lightbox" src="https://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/Delineator_1913%20%282%29.jpg?itok=ZrqniXzD" style="width: 413px; height: 550px;" title="Image from "The Delineator" of July 1913"></p><p>Nevertheless, during the 1920s, the industry changed significantly. Contraction of the ribbon market led to the closure or takeover of many firms, including Smith & Kaufman and Pelgram & Meyer.</p><p>The companies that were left, including Cheney Brothers and Taylor-Friedsam, adopted new, automated looms that lessened the need for skilled weavers. Silk gave way to rayon, and the remaining American manufacturers ceded the market for the fanciest woven novelty ribbons to European makers.</p><p>The ribbons donated to the Smithsonian's textile collection, however, remain to delight us with their designs and inspire us to know more about the circumstances and lives of the people who made them—and perhaps to wish we had some to ornament our own Easter bonnets.</p><p><em>Madelyn Shaw is curator of textiles in the Division of Home and Community Life. She has also blogged about <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/WWI-silk-fashion">World War I silk</a> and <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/national-parks-silk">silks designed to celebrate America’s National Parks</a>.</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-user field-type-user-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Staff Member: </div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/users/shawm">ShawM</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-posted-date field-type-datetime field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Posted Date: </div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">Thursday, April 13, 2017 - 09:00</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-blog-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Categories: </h3><ul class="links"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0"><a href="/blog-tags/textiles">Textiles</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1"><a href="/blog-tags/womens-history">Women's History</a></li></ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?a=7U__hHKfYsc:Xyrkemk-MmM:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?a=7U__hHKfYsc:Xyrkemk-MmM:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?a=7U__hHKfYsc:Xyrkemk-MmM:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?i=7U__hHKfYsc:Xyrkemk-MmM:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?a=7U__hHKfYsc:Xyrkemk-MmM:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?i=7U__hHKfYsc:Xyrkemk-MmM:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?a=7U__hHKfYsc:Xyrkemk-MmM:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/OSayCanYouSee?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OSayCanYouSee/~4/7U__hHKfYsc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
