as a result of this initial attempt to list and date known companies. The 

 dating of individual machines based on their serial numbers is also a difficult 

 task. Individual company records of this type have not survived ; however, 

 using the commercial machines in the patent collection, for which we know 

 one limiting date — the date the machine was deposited at the patent office — 

 and using the records that have survived, an estimated date based on the 

 serial number can be established for many of the better known machines. 



Acknowledgments 



I am greatly indebted to the late Dr. Frederick Lewton. 

 whose interest in the history of the sewing machine initiated 

 the collecting of information about it for the Smithsonian 

 Institution's Division of Textiles archives and whose out-of- 

 print booklet "A Servant in the House" prompted the 

 writing of this work. I would also like to thank Mr. Bogart 

 Thompson of the Singer Manufacturing Company for his 

 cooperation in arranging for the gift of an excellent collec- 

 tion of 19th-century sewing machines to the Smithsonian 

 and for allowing me to use the Singer historical files. 

 Acknowledgment is also made of the cooperation extended 

 by The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village for 

 permitting me to study their collection of old sewing 

 machines. 



Grace Rogers Cooper 



