A Brass Button
Military uniforms
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.
U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum, Ft. Lee, VA
1861-1865
US Army Quartermaster Museum.
Colour Photograph
A Button Hole
Wool uniforms worn by US Union soldiers in the American Civil War.
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 woolen cloth from fraying with use.
US Army Quartermaster
US Army Quartermaster Museum
1861-1865
Trish FitzSimons
US Army Quartermaster Museum
photograph
American soldiers in hospital, knitting occupational therapy. 1918 (NARA)
knitting; rehabilitation
Photograph of three soldiers in bed, two knitting with needles and one with another textile tool. Two nurses behind.
NARA
1918
NARA public domain
AnnaMaria von Phul Watercolor
American Indian woman wearing trade blanket
Anna Maria von Phul
Missouri Historical Society
ca. 1815
Array of samples of US Army woolen textiles, WWII (NMAH/Textiles)
Photograph of US Army woolen textile swatches from WWII
NMAH/Textiles
1941-45
NMAH
Array of samples of US Navy woolen textiles, WWII (NMAH/Textiles)
Photograph of swatches of women textiles used by the US Navy in WWII
NMAH/Textiles
1941-45
NMAH
Australian soldiers in Military Barracks, WW1
Military Uniforms; World War 1.
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 synthetic fabrics made sleeping bags viable, woolen blankets kept many millions of soldiers warm. In this hut, two Australian men nap in their hut, in an artillery training camp in England; one folded blanket as a mattress, a second as a covering. In 1918, American soldiers in the lines were issued a new blanket about every two months. In camp, blankets were expected to last two or more years.
<a href="http://www.collections.qm.qld.gov.au/search.do?view=detail&page=1&id=2281715&db=object">Queensland Museum</a> #H14359.85
1917
Photographic negative #87 in Kodak Negative Album H14359.101.
Bales on Bullocks
Australian wool
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 Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. # 00g03065.jpg.
Black & White Photograph
Booklet of Standard Uniform Fabrics, US Army
Military Uniforms; Wool & War
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 shorts, twill for trousers, broadcloth for overcoats), and qualities (new wool, part shoddy, cotton mixed). Dress and field uniforms suffered very different conditions. And all these fabrics had to be woven, dyed, and finished to strict specifications.
U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum
1930
Colour photograph
Box of US Wool Samples: US Quartermasters Museum
Military Uniforms
Standard Uniform Army Fabrics US Army: box of wool samples
US Quartermasters Museum, Fort Lee Virginia.
Boy's suit made from a Union soldier's uniform, ca. 1865
Boy’s Suit with Ribbon, “My Father was a Soldier,” ca. 1865
Wool and silk
Jacket length: 15" (center back); Pants length: 16" (waist to hem)
Atlanta History Center, Atlanta, Georgia
1985.252.M2487
Atlanta History Center
ca. 1865
Atlanta History Center
California shearer, 1895 (Library of Congress)
shearing; wool
Photograph of shearer and single, half shorn sheep in profile, in wooden shed with landscape in background
LOC
1895
LOC public domain
Carting wool bales, New Zealand, 1915 (Library of Congress)
Photograph of wagon loaded with wool bales, pulled by 14 bullocks. Hilly landscape in background, one worker stands at the head of the first team.
LOC
1915
LOC public domain
Chicago shepherdesses herd sheep along a street to promote sheep clubs during WWI. 1918. (NARA)
sheep; WWI; shortages
Photograph of sheep being driven along a city street by several young women dressed as shepherdesses. Chicago, 1918.
NARA
1918
NARA public domain
Civil War Greatcoat
Military uniforms; American Civil War
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 would have been produced sometime between 1851 and 1861. It has the name A.Harrison inside, which may be the name of the soldier that wore it, for at least part of its life in the US Civil War. <em>See <a href="https://fabricofwar.gitlab.io/coat/">Interactive Greatcoat</a></em>
<a href="http://www.qmmuseum.lee.army.mil/main.html?n=1"></a>
<p><a href="http://www.qmmuseum.lee.army.mil/main.html?n=1">US Army Quartermaster Museum </a><span lang="en-us">Ft. Lee, VA.<br /><br />Object QMR-85.10.03<br /><br /><br /></span></p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.qmmuseum.lee.army.mil/main.html?n=1"></a></p>
1851-1861
US Army Quartermaster Museum.Ft. Lee, VA.
Photograph by Stephen Harrison.
Colour photograph.
Collar Fragment: 16th Australian Infantry Battalion
Military Uniforms
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.
<a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1244480">Australian War Memorial</a>#RELAWM07839.012
1915
Australian War Memorial
Oxidized brass, Wool. c1915
Connecticut State Council of Defense War Exhibit, Hartford 18 Oct 1918. Conservation of wool and cloth. (NARA)
wool; shortages
Photograph of display set up to instruct in ways to conserve wool and other textiles for the war effort. October 1918, Connecticut.
J. Fred Dunn, photographer
NARA
18 Oct 1918
NARA public domain
Conserving wool cartoon, 1941-45, US. By Charles Shows. (NARA)
Soldier and woman in bathing suit walk on the beach. Caption "I'm conserving wool, this bathing suit's painted on."
Charles Shows
NARA
1941-45
NARA - check
Convict Suit
wool
parti-coloured convict suit
National Library of Australia
Cotswolds Church Stained Glass Golden Fleece
Roar of the Cotswolds Lion
Cutting Flag Stripes, 1918, USA (Library of Congress)
flag; wool industry
Woman using powered cutting machine to cut stripes of wool bunting for flags
LOC
ca. 1918
Document - ANA - The Saga of Wool in War and Peace
Wool, Usage in WW2
Pages from a printed publicity piece published by the American Wool Council, 1450 Broadway, NY, NY; "Text Assembled from Reports of the United States Army and Navy." P. 1 - Cover; P.2 - "The Army and Navy Agree: Wool Has No Substitute"; P.3 - Spread on Why Wool.
1945-1946
Document - ANA-1915TextileAllianceDocSouthAfrica.jpg
Wool Trade - WW1 - Shipping Issues -South Africa
An excerpt from a document by the US' organization The Textile Alliance; this page focusing on shipping troubles of getting wool from South Africa (unrestricted by the British) to the US.
1915
Document - ANA-1938Japan-AustraliaWoolRayonTrade.jpg
Wool & Rayon Trade Agreement - Japan-Australia
Japanese government offer of guaranteed purchase of certain number of bales of Australian wool, in return for which they wish Australia to purchase a certain number of yards of their own rayon staple fiber cloth, weighing above 3 oz. per yard, manufactured as a wool substitute. This document speaks to the sophistication of the interwar Japanese rayon industry and its advances in using staple rayon (cut and spun as opposed to filament rayon) in making wool-like fabrics.
1938
Document - ANA-1938Japan-AusWoolRayonp2.JPG
Rayon Fibre trade - Japan-Australia Trade Agreement - Interwar
P.2 of Japanese government document regarding trade agreement with Australia, detailing sticking points as to export restrictions on rayon staple (i.e. wool-like) fabrics. This page continues Japan's arguments in favor of allowing greater quantities of Japanese staple fiber rayon into Australia
1938
Document - ANA-1939EdithCoxLtr.JPG
Letter from English woman, Edith Cox, regarding desirability of wool for clothing
Edith Cox wrote the Australian PM to express her views that rayon was not a suitable substitute for wool in clothing; that their had been many deaths already because of rayon's flammability; and that Australian wool would keep British citizens safer in wartime.
1939
Document - ANA-1939GermanRayonReportCoverMemo.JPG
German Synthetic Fibre Development - Interwar
Memo - Cover letter to a secret report on German substitute and synthetic fibres. The report itself (one page reproduced herein) covers more than just the staple rayon industry.
January 1939
Document - ANA-1939ReportGermanSyntheticProgress.jpg
German Rayon Developments - Interwar
Extract from Imperial Economic Committee document: Quotation at length from the Frankfurter Zeitung of 24 March 1939. "Further Improvement in Industrially Produced Textile Materials"
1939
Document - ANA1938JapanWool.JPG
Wool Trade - Japan - War with China
Typescript of cable describing Japan's prohibition of wool for civilian use in order to divert wool to export trade; a result of the conflict with China. NB: Diversion of wool to exports probably in order to earn hard currency necessary to support the war with China.
1938
Document - ANA1941NovShoddyToShanghai.JPG
Australian Wool Trade - Shoddy to China
Typescript of cable describing shipment approved of wool shoddy to mill in Shanghai, November 1941. Question now is whether the shoddy was for use by the Chinese government or the Japanese?