Arlington Mills worsted fabric process sample, 1940
date: label: date made
content: 1940
name: label: maker
content: Arlington Mills
notes: label: Description
content: Arlington Mills worsted fabric process sample, 1940. Very dark navy blue wool; herringbone twill weave; Process label reads: "Made from Low 1/4 Blood Wool". Good condition, no holes; with a 4x5 cut off one corner. [Originally part of an Arlington Woolen Mills process display board; dismantled, probably before 1980.]
label: Description
content: Several of the process samples in this group are labeled with where the wool came from. "Territory" wool came from the American west; "Low 1/4 Blood" probably meant only 1/4 merino sheep in the mix. Territory, also called Range wools, comprised a large and important segment of US wool-growing, but into the early 20th century the wools were often characterized as being badly sheared and packed, dirty and with a lot of plant material caught in the fleeces.
label: Description
content: Arlington Mills, successor to Arlington Woolen Mills, was one of the premier woolen and worsted companies in the US for many decades. The mills were in and around Lawrence, MA, and company headquarters was in Boston. American manufacturers of woolen and worsted yarns and of woven and knitted textiles relied on both American-grown wool and on imports of raw wool and partially processed wool fiber, called "tops", American growers never produced more than about half the raw wool needed by the American manufacturing sector.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
label: See more items in
content: American Textile Industry
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Arlington Mills through Franklin W. Hobbs
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.T20214.000
label: accession number
content: 156619
label: catalog number
content: 20214
objectType: label: Object Name
content: fabric sample
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wool (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: twill weave (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 35 3/4 in x 55 1/2 in; 90.805 cm x 140.97 cm