Creative Textile Art and the 

 American Museum' 



By M. D. C. CRAWFORD 



With two color i)lat('s presented to the Journal by H. R. Mallinson & Co. and 

 Johnson, Cowdin & Co., respectively 



THE silk industry in America 

 amounts to $500,000,000 yearly. 

 Xinety-seven per cent of the 

 silks worn by American women are 

 woven in the United States. It may 

 also be added that the United States uses 

 more raw silk than all of Europe com- 

 bined. Thirty years ago the proportion 

 of imports to exports was just reversed, 

 and so within the business career of 

 men still active, this industry has grown 

 to its present enormous proportions. 



Inspiring as these statements are for 

 our industrial development, however, it 

 must be said that the decorative ideas 

 have been almost always foreign in 

 origin. We looked to Europe for al- 

 most every suggestion of style in fab- 

 rics and in garments, until the neces- 

 sity of the last two years compelled us 

 to exert our own originality. The tex- 

 tile art was very much neglected in this 

 country and, while it is unjust to the 

 few men of original ideas, who did not 

 wait for the spur of necessity, to say 

 that there was no creation in America 

 previous to the war, yet the statement 

 requires onl}^ this qualification to be 

 accurate. 



This great industry during the past 

 year has made extensive use of the 

 American Museum collections. The 

 cotton manufacturers are following 

 this example, and before many weeks 

 are past, this industry also will be in- 

 debted to the American ^Fuseum for 

 decorative schemes. In Xew York 

 City, besides the textile interests, there 

 is an enormous investment of capital 

 in the orarment business. The number 



of employees runs into the hundreds of 

 thousands, and this is easily the best 

 paid labor in the world. The volume 

 of business in ready-to-wear garments 

 that leaves Greater New York yearly 

 runs close to the half billion mark — 

 and this industry also is turning to the 

 American Museum collections for artis- 

 tic inspiration. But the silk men came 

 first. Nor is the reason for this far to 

 seek, since silk is a luxury and requires 

 a continual succession of new and beau- 

 tiful ideas in order to induce people to 

 buy it. 



While it is unquestionably true that 

 the great collections of primitive Amer- 

 ican art have largely afi^ected the pres- 

 ent styles (and no one can be indiffer- 

 ent to the significance of the tardy ap- 

 preciation of this wonderful material), 

 yet the other great collections, such as 

 the Chinese, Koryak, Philippine, and 

 South Sea Island, have also been of 

 great interest. Fashion seems to re- 

 quire almost constant change, and it 

 may well be that the designers will 

 at different times emphasize different 

 collections in the Museum. But the 

 addition to our decorative arts of the 

 inspirational wealth of aboriginal 

 American design will be of permanent 

 value. We shall turn to it again and 

 again, each time with added skill and 

 appreciation. These records are so in- 

 timately, so unquestionably our own, 

 that they will serve as a basis for our 

 distinctive decorative arts, and will 

 lend a virile character to all our future 

 creative work. 



^ See previous article by Mr. Crawford, American Museum Jourxai,, Vol. XVI, page 417, which 

 gives many illustrations of Peruvian and other original sources of design in the American Museum. 



