500 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1899. 



down to form the sheds. A note with reference to these specimens 

 was inserted the next da}" in the Hartford Courant, and as a result 

 replies were recei\"ed from various quarters, calling attention not only 

 to the existence of other examples, but mentioning the names of women 

 who in their early days had practiced weaving tape, fanciful hat- 

 bands, garters, and other narrow ornamental fabrics on them. It 

 became evident that a device which at first seemed 

 to have been invented by American Indians was 

 not known to them prior to Columbus, but had 

 crept into savage hands from the folk craft of 

 early white settlers. 



Specimen No. 169078, in the U. S. National 

 Museum, is a heddle frame presented by Roswcll 

 Atkins, of Bristol, Connecticut, of the seventh 

 generation of this family in the United States. 

 It is made of a piece of pine board three-fourths 

 of an inch thick. The upper end is sawed into 

 fourteen healds, and each of them is pierced for 

 a warp thread, making room for twentj^-seven 

 warp threads. At the top, the healds are held in 

 place by two battens which clamp the upper ends. 

 The bottom is chamfered to be held between the 

 knees b}^ a person sitting in a chair (fig. 12). 

 This is a very primitive specimen of this class of 

 heddles, and serves to illustrate their popularity 

 in folk industry. There is nothing about this 

 piece that is above the skill of the untutored 

 farm boy with a common saw and awl and ham- 

 mer; the lower portion is not even rounded out 

 to fit the limbs of the operator as seen in other 

 figures. 



Specimen 175641 in the U. S. National Museum 

 is a heddle frame from Bristol, Connecticut, 

 made from a thin board of maple wood. The 

 upper portion consists of twenty-two healds 8f 

 inches long, sawed out from the top as in fig. 14 

 (fig. 13). These, together with twenty-one spaces, 

 provide for forty-three warp filaments, and this 

 portion of the apparatus is 9 inches wide. The tops of the healds fit 

 in a groove of a rectangular block of oak which furnishes a framework 

 to the upper border. On opposite sides, at the bottom of the healds, 

 are riveted semicylindrical strips of the same material, strengthening 

 the apparatus at that point. The continuation downward of this upper 

 or working Y)art forms a base 17 inches long, cut out in a pattern 

 resembling a vase or lamp stand. This stand is inserted in a groove 



HEDDLE FRAME FROM BRIS- 

 TOL, CONNECTICUT. 



Cat. No. 169078, U.S.N.M. Vn- 

 seiited to the National Miise- 

 um ))y Roswell Atkins. 



