Compliments of the SeasonbyLauren Roberts
I have about a dozen bookmarks devoted to Christmas or Christmas/New Year’s, but my favorite is an advertising one from the American Silk Label Manufacturing. It was given as a holiday keepsake by the company to its customers in 1935. Its sensuality is what makes it particularly lovely: thick and rich with a luxurious feel, an important quality in a gift from a silk manufacturer. Whoever owned this bookmark took good care of it for the colors are as vibrant now as the day it was produced. The maker was American Silk Label Manufacturing Co. At the time this bookmark was handed out, the company was located at 1450 Broadway in New York City. But it hadn’t always been there. The Official Catalogue United States Centennial Commission #826 listed the company as residing at 389 Broome Street in New York and further noted: “Names of signers of Declaration of Independence, labels and other designs, woven in silk; for clothiers, merchant tailors, and hatters. H77.” They were listed under “Dept. II – Manufacturers,” then under “Silk and Silk Fabrics, and Mixtures in which Silk is the predominating material.” This commission was from the International Exhibition of 1876, which itself came about as a result of an Act of Congress approved on March 3, 1871 declaring that the centennial anniversary of the promulgation of the Declaration of American Independence in Philadelphia should be celebrated “by holding an International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Produce of the Soil and Mine” in that city. In mid-1874, the President was requested (by another act) to invite the governments of foreign nations to participate. It was accepted by quite a few. The Centennial Commission divided the objects to be displayed into seven categories:
Further sub-divisions were undertaken. Under Manufactures were:
American Silk Label Manufacturing Co. fell under “Silk and Silk Fabrics.” Its exhibit hall, located in the main building, can be seen here. So clothing labels have been around once clothing moved at least partially, out of the realm of homemade and into manufactured items. A search on Google showed hundreds of makers of labels—and one amusing article from earlier this year. In Taking the Scissors to Annoying Labels, some customers explained how little they cared about them: “Though clothing designers and manufacturers may sweat the graphics and placement of their signature labels, many of their customers, armed with tiny sewing scissors and seam rippers, toil just as avidly to remove them.” Silk ones, like those from the American Silk Label Manufacturing Co., tend to be soft and unobtrusive, but most manufacturers nowadays cut corners, using polyester, nylon, or acetate tags which may range from (barely) acceptable to annoying. (Labels woven into the clothing are made of soft, natural fibers.) Now, I always cut them out whether on shirts or pants and skirts simply because I can feel them. Years ago, the day I found myself putting my hand up to the back of my neck to rub, caress, and scratch my neck every two or three minutes was the day I finally closed my office door, drew the blinds, and proceeded to remove my shirt and spend fifteen minutes carefully cutting out as much of the label and threads as I could, then plucking the rest. Pinholes resulted, but what a relief that was. From then on, every item that comes in has its required surgery before being allowed in my closet. Clothing labels are not mere advertising, however. They are used to show that the clothing being sold meets certain standards. Their shape is most commonly rectangular and either 1 x 2 inches or 1/2 x 1 inch. The size chosen usually depends on the size of the final product. Labels must be easily viewable by the potential consumer and anyone else who may be involved in the care and maintenance of the fabric (dry cleaner, etc.), which is why they are so often placed at the top back of the item. As well, labels are required to stay on the fabric for the reasonable life of the product without fading or discoloration that will make then illegible. (Hence, the reason for manmade fibers of many labels.) But another reason not important to most consumers is that the labels’ reason for identifying the country of origin is that certain article may vary in price based on the product origin and the inspections and taxes will vary depending on the source of the fabric. And of course it also allows buyers to check the label to see they wish to buy or boycott fabrics made in certain countries. American Silk Manufacture by William Cornelius Wyckoff, published in 1887, details the history of silk manufacturing since the beginning of this country. The details would be of little interest to anyone except those in the industry at that time (and modern researchers) but does provide some good general background to the development of the American silk industry: During the entire colonial period the mother country [England] followed a uniform line of policy with her American settlements : she encouraged them liberally in the production of raw material, while holding them in check as to any attempt at manufacture. This policy confined the development of the industry to silk culture from the settlement of the country to the date of the Revolution ; even for fifty years after the United States became a nation, this colonial idea seemed to be impressed upon silk enterprises. Extraordinary efforts were made to carry out the British programme in the Southern colonies. In Virginia, planters were urged to raise silk by a series of royal instructions and acts of Parliament ; by the free gift of mulberry seeds and silk-worm eggs ; by heavy fines (payable in tobacco) for neglecting to plant mulberry trees, contrasted with large premiums for them when fairly growing; and by liberal bounties for raw silk. The results of all this effort, extending over most of a century, were strangely insignificant. Toward the middle of the last century, prominent citizens, among whom was Dr. Benjamin Franklin, urged the advantages of silk culture in Pennsylvania, and induced many persons to try the experiment. . . . About 1747-50 Governor Law and his daughter wore habiliments made of New England silk, and at a later date a president of Yale College was arrayed in an academical gown of like material ; but there are no records of the production of silk in any considerable quantities. Silk culture in this country was almost extinct before the Declaration of Independence. At the South it had been supplanted by more profitable industries ; at the North it had scarcely advanced beyond experiment. There were no manufacturers here, and little use was found for silk in homespun fabrics. Connecticut was the first State that awakened to a lively interest in the silk business. Her legislature, in 1784, offered a bounty of ten shillings per hundred for mulberry trees, and three pence per ounce for “raw silk,” which perhaps meant cocoons. The effect of this stimulus was soon perceptible. This time the industry came to stay, because it had a domestic market. True, the manufacture was a household art; neither the spindle nor the loom was power-driven. But in that very fact lay the adaptation of one branch of the industry to the other. The good housewives could, with care, work up their badly-reeled silk on their slow-moving spindles, ultimately making a fair article of “sewings,” which was readily bartered at the village store. The waste, or “silk tow,” after more laborious treatment, was woven into homespun cloth. The business of throwing silk by machinery driven by water-power had assumed large dimensions in England, beginning in 1718 with the great silk mill of Sir Thomas Lombe. An act of Parliament was passed in 1774, “To prevent the exportation to foreign parts of utensils made use of in the cotton, linen, woolen and silk manufactures of the kingdom." Even after the repeal of the act, there were difficulties in the way of importing into the United States machinery for throwing silk, and at length Yankee ingenuity began to be exercised to supply the deficiency. Between 1829 and 1839, many stock companies were formed, with capitals varying from $30,000 to $250,000 and over, for raising and manufacturing silk. . . . Though nearly all the companies attempted manufacture, that part of the business was regarded as secondary and not at the time important. For several years the silk manufacture of this country was almost wholly confined to two branches: sewing-silk in 1850 constituting two-thirds, and fringes, trimmings, etc., nearly one-third of the entire production. . . . While the business of making sewings and twist had risen in 1860 to nearly thrice the volume of 1850, that of fringes, trimmings, etc., had increased in a much larger proportion . . . nearly five times what was given in the previous census. The bulk of the trimmings manufacture was concentrated in two cities: Philadelphia and New York. We now come to the war period ; the most important of any, in its effects upon our industry. For a short time before and after the outbreak of hostilities, business of almost every kind was paralyzed ; the imports of raw silk dropped to a third of their previous average, and, it is worthy of note, the imports of silk goods fell off in like proportion. The raising of the tariff on foreign silks, in 1861, at first to 30 and then to 40 per cent, helped to reduce their importation. The four years of civil war show a very irregular consumption of raw silk, but averaging very nearly that of previous years, while the importation of European fabrics reached less than half its former volume. One of the moving causes which brought about the formation of the Silk Association of America, was the necessity felt by the trade for having such errors corrected; they “belittled the industry.” The first object named in the call (June, 1872,) for forming the association, was “The gathering of accurate statistics and reports on the silk trade and manufacture.” This object began to be accomplished at an early date in the association's history, and returns were obtained for the year ending December 31st, 1872, from 147 manufacturing concerns, representing a production of finished goods at least 50 per cent, greater than that of the census of 1870. The entire production was very evenly divided at this time under three heads : one-third, sewings and twist ; a little over a third, broad goods and ribbons ; nearly a third, trimmings, laces, etc. The year 1876 was signalized by the opening of the Centennial Exhibition, at Philadelphia. Hundreds of thousands of our people, for the first time in their lives, learned there that the silk goods made in this country met every want of the consumer ; combining elegance in design, strength of material and cheapness in prices. These facts were widely advertised through the publications of the Silk Association of America, which furnished the material for innumerable articles in newspapers throughout the Union, justly applauding the triumphs of American industry. A marked advance in the production of several branches of manufacture — notably of handkerchief and ribbons — was the immediate result. The avenues of domestic trade thus opened have never been closed, though sometimes narrowed by changing fashions or clogged by the waves of depression which at intervals overspread all commercial interests. The number of silk manufacturing establishments reported in the census year, 1879-80, was 382. . . . By the census of 1880, a more accurate knowledge was attained of the growth of the industry and the conditions of its success, than had before been possible. . . . It was shown that prosperity has been brought within very recent years to many new sites where silk factories have been established, and related forms of industry have followed in their wake ; while an army of operatives, the majority of whom are women and youth, have obtained healthful and profitable employment in a thousand silk mills. Many influences besides those we have named have powerfully affected the silk industry. Steamship and railroad, telegraph and telephone, have revolutionized the methods of business. The marvelous facilities of modern commerce are open to all who choose to employ them. The production may be divided as follows : nearly three fifths, broad goods and ribbons ; somewhat more than a fifth, sewings and twist; one-fifth, trimmings, etc., and mixtures. The American Silk Label Manufacturing Co. was one of those new prosperous firms, having been created in 1875. Despite finding almost nothing about the firm online, I did discover that the New York Historical Society has a beautiful copy of a silk ribbon label from the 50th anniversary of the Silk Label Manufacturing Company, which took place in 1925. The description reads: A framed sample of two woven silk ribbon labels that reproduce the signatures from the Declaration of Independence, decorated at the top with eagles with flags and shields. One commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Silk Label Manufacturing Company in 1925, and one marks the 200th birthday of George Washington in 1932. Also displayed are a ribbon with a portrait of Washington marked “1732-Bicentennial-1932” and another ribbon showing him mounted in battle with the caption “Put none but Americans on guard tonight”. A business card that reads “American Silk Label Manufacturing Co./ Silk and cotton Woven Labels/ 1450 Broadway,/ Broadway Continental Building,/ New York” is included. What puzzles me is that there are only two other twentieth-century references. One, from early in the century, is a small part of a young woman’s obituary; at seventeen she was killed in a car accident and it noted that she worked at the company. Another, more intriguing one, is part of an article about employment in the Evening News of Newburgh, NY of January 10, 1973, which included this paragraph: At Unionville, American Silk Label Manufacturing Co. Inc. will recruit for three Vietnam veterans for training as jacquard loom weavers.” Yet there is no mention anywhere else of the company in this town’s history. A request sent to the village’s contact page for help elicited no response. Was it the same company? It would seem so, yet it has vanished into the fog of history. That doesn’t make the bookmark any less intriguing, but I am sorry that the full story behind it is even more ephemeral than the bookmark itself. Bookmark specifications: A Boatload of Prosperity
Almost since her childhood days of Mother Goose, Lauren has been giving her opinion on books to anyone who will listen. That “talent” eventually took her out of magazine writing and into book reviewing in 2000 for an online review site where she cut her teeth (as well as a few authors). Stints as book editor for her local newspaper and contributing editor to Booklist and Bookmarks magazines has reinforced her belief that she has interesting things to say about books. Lauren shares her home with several significant others including three cats, nearly 1,300 bookmarks and approximately the same number of books that, whether previously read or not, constitute her to-be-read stack. She is a member of the National Books Critics Circle (NBCC) as well as a longtime book design judge for Publishers Marketing Association’s Benjamin Franklin Awards. Contact Lauren.
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