Age

1925 · 54342 — Philadelphia PA: Otto F. Schumann Philadelphia Textile School ca. 1925. Small 4to. 8.25 x 9.2 in. 75 leaves unnumbered including 32 leaves with detailed colour charts on weave formations producing various kinds of cloth 3 tipped-in textile samples together w/ weaving instructions in manuscript. Original limp leather 3-ring binder gilt lettering stamped on front cover ink lettering & association of Otto F. Schumann on front cover some soiling dustsoiling edgewear still VG exemplar. This Jazz Age weaving manuscript notebook complete with weave formation design plates fabric samples and instructions offer a remarkable and invaluable artifact of how a young American textile designer and weaver received training at the famed Philadelphia Textile School now Philadelphia University during the 1920s. These course books were judged on completeness and the aspiring weaver’s skill in presenting the details about the instruction as well as their abilities in running the machinery required to produce the cloth. This manuscript notebook includes Schumann’s detailed plates and notes on producing color effect on the plain weave creating Broken Twills Crowfoot Satins Checked & Figured Broken Twills Entwining Twills Basket Weaves and Broken Satins. The extensive manuscript notes detail the loom instructions how many lines are required composition and more in producing the assorted effects. Because of the poor quality of United States textiles exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876 the Philadelphia Textile Manufacturers pushed for a formalized vocational school to train weavers designers and textile workers. In 1884 it became part of the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art with 81 students enrolled by 1885 and by 1894 the School of Textiles added a Department of Wool Carding & Spinning and a Department of Cloth Finishing and Design. By the 1920s the Philadelphia Textile School was offering extensive three-year textile courses chemistry and dyeing courses as well as design courses in cottons woolens worsteds silks Jacquard design and more. Schumann 1906-1967 was the son of Hugo Schumann founder and owner of the Maid Hosiery Mills in Reading PA through the opening decades of the 20th century for whom he worked with until after World War II as designer and sales executive. Otto F. Schumann, Philadelphia Textile School, hardcover