Warrnambool Woollen Mill Co. Ltd. (Australia) blanket, 1915
date: label: date made
content: 1914-1915
name: label: maker
content: Warrnambool Woollen Mill Co., Ltd.
notes: label: Description
content: A dark heathered gray heavyweight all-wool blanket. 88" long x 55" wide. No seams. 4 lb. weight; heavily fulled. Manufactured by the Warrnambool Woollen Mill Co., Ltd. of Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia. Original oaktag tags removed from the blanket during the 1979 inventory and now housed in the accession file, give the following information: "Working man's use; Invoice price in Melbourne - $1.75; With compliments of the government of Victoria." The dark heathered gray of the blanket is broken by a wide blue vertical stripe at center, and a similar stripe horizontally across the upper third of the blanket. Where the two stripes cross is a block of intense blue. The top and bottom raw edges have been finished with a matching bright blue blanket stitching. The sides are selvages. Warrnambool Woollen Mill first opened in the 1880s, but only became successful after it re-opened in a new mill building in 1910. The company had a blanket contract with the Australian government during World War I. The company was taken over by another firm in the 1960s. The mill building is now part of an adaptive reuse residential development. The Warrnambool Woollen Mill Co. exhibited blankets and flannels at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. This blanket may have been part of their display. It may have been acquired by the US National Museum in 1915, at the end of the Exposition, as an example of the kind of blankets available to British Empire soldiers during the Great War, which the US had not yet entered.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Australia: Victoria, Warrnambool
topic: label: Subject
content: World War I
label: related event
content: World War I
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
label: See more items in
content: Textiles
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of the Government of Victoria, Australia
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1979.0725.425
label: catalog number
content: 1979.0725.425
label: accession number
content: 1979.0725
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Blanket
label: Other Terms
content: Blanket; Household Textile; 1914-15
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wool (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: dark grey (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: blue (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: fulled (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 88 in x 55 in; 223.52 cm x 139.7 cm