"Franklin's Key to Electricity" dress silk, Mallinson's Early American series
date: label: Date made
content: 1929
name: label: depicted
content: Franklin, Benjamin
label: maker
content: H. R. Mallinson & Co. Inc.
notes: label: Description
content: Length of "Pussy Willow" (Mallinson trade name) - a fine soft, radium-like plain weave fabric ( mfr #1900). Printed with an allover pattern #2773, "Franklin's Key to Electricity," one of the "Early American" series. This pattern is also called "Early and Modern American," as in it are introduced influences that directly and indirectly resulted from Franklin's experiments with electricity: Electric train, electric lamp; electric crane and shovel; electric telephone; radio microphone; searchlight; automobile; contrasted with these are the pony express rider; Franklin and his kite; Franklin in his study, and at his printing press. Six colors and black on a white ground #15. Selvage width, selvage inscription. Judging from drawings by free-lance textile designer Walter Mitschke in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts - Boston, Mitschke designed this print and several others in the Early American series. This particular design, with its jagged diagonals, was influenced by Jazz Age modernism.
label: Description
content: Mallinson's 1929 "Early American" series of printed dress silks was based on historical events and figures that were perceived at the time to consitute a shared American story. It was the last of the company's line of designs based on American themes in which each design was printed in at least seven colors, in several colorways, on three or four different ground cloths. The stock market crash and economic depression that followed made the investment in this kind of design unprofitable.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: related event
content: Seige of the Alamo
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
label: See more items in
content: American Silks
label: See more items in
content: American Silk Industry
label: See more items in
content: Migel-Mallinson Silks
label: See more items in
content: Textiles
label: See more items in
content: Mallinson's Early American
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of H.R. Mallinson & Co., Inc.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.T05940
label: catalog number
content: T5940
label: catalog number
content: T (/) 5940
label: accession number
content: 104252
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Fabric, Printed
label: Object Name
content: fabric length
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: silk (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plain weave; cylinder-printed (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 36 in x 39 in; 91.44 cm x 99.06 cm