Browse Items (115 total)

sample of Saxony superfine merino

Photograph of sheep's fleece

Etching by Luther Webster, ca. 1893.

American Woolen Mills, Massachusetts, ca. 1918

Depicts men sitting and lying around the interior of hut. Photographic negative from an album owned by Gunner Clive Richard Balmer, Australian Imperial Forces, dated 5 June 1917.
Soldiers who are shivering from cold are inefficient fighters. Before…

A black and white photograph featuring two Australian Soldiers in the snow;
From an album owned by Staff Sergeant-Major Arthur George Bennett winter 1916. The man standing on the left is Sergeant-Bennett from the 4th Pioneers.
In training camp in…

Example of merino wool grown by the Peppin Family in the Wanganella Region of NSW. This family worked hard for decades in the mid to late nineteenth century to breed sheep that were able to survive in Outback Australia whilst also growing the long,…

Standard Uniform Army Fabrics US Army: box of wool samples

Fragment of officer's tunic collar: 16 Battalion, AIF, Bloody Angle, Gallipoli. Remains of a proper right side Australian officer's tunic collar. Attached to it are a Rising Sun badge and three other badges.

Wool Standards Box, 1946: US Department of Agriculture. Notice inside the cover of a large box that included Wool Grades 36&44, 56-60 and 64-80. Box top with signed certificate of standards, verifying samples of raw wool.
A sheep’s fleece could be…

Folder of sample uniform fabrics: War Department, Office of Quartermaster General, Washington D.C. Whether in peace or war, the world’s military forces required cloth of many different weights (tropical, medium, and heavy), types (flannel for…

Samples from the US Quartermasters ‘Official Standards Box’. The 1926 standards distinguished 12 grades of wool by fiber diameter. By 1968 the U.S. classification had 16 grades, from finer than grade 80s, down to coarser than grade 36. This group of…

Wool sample "Ewe Hogget" 1892
Haddon Rig, Warren NSW.

The 1926 standards distinguished 12 grades of wool by fiber diameter. By 1968 the U.S. classification had 16 grades, from Finer than grade 80s, down to Coarser than grade 36. This group of three samples shows the medium grades.

The 1926 standards distinguished 12 grades of wool by fiber diameter. By 1968 the U.S. classification had 16 grades, from Finer than grade 80s, down to Coarser than grade 36. This group of three samples shows the coarser, long staple grades. Notice…

Classing sheep in yards

Spinning wool in factory

Photograph of tables filled with sheep’s fleeces at a wool show room in Sydney, Australia. Wool sales began to move to Australia from England in the later 19th century, when technology such as steam-powered ships and the telegraph enabled more rapid…

Bales of wool ready to be transported for manufacturing.
Getting wool to market from all parts of inland Australia where it was produced was never easy, especially before motorized transport

The stitching here is so even it almost looks like machine work, but is hand sewn. The double-layer, high standing collar protected a soldier from drafts, just as the elbow length cape added protection from wind and weather.

Greatcoat button hole created with silk twist thread in a standard buttonhole (or blanket) stitch, over a laid thread, to produce a solid line around the slit opening. Good workmanship meant closely spaced, even stitches that kept the thick, heavy…

Standard US Army eagle button.
No letter appears on the shield to indicate a particular branch of service. The nap (brushed surface) of the woolen cloth has worn off with use and abrasion, revealing the warp and weft threads.

Union infantry overcoat with shoulder cape and stand collar; made of new wool broadcloth, tightly woven in a plain weave, and heavily fulled (washed to prevent shrinkage and increase durability) with collar and brass buttons. This US Army Overcoat…