THE DYESTUFFS 



There are, no doubt, a great number of dying drugs in this country, which, if known, 

 might become valuable. It is much to be regretted, that some institution does not exist 

 in this country to test and bring to notice its native colouring matters. In the hands of 

 a practical and theoretical dyer, many valuable discoveries might be made of new dyes 

 now lying dormant. Many of them might be used to advantage by the dyers of this 

 country, and also become objects of some magnitude, as exports. 



In spite of this notion, expressed by William Partridge in 1847 (pp. 37-38) 

 and subscribed to by many others since his time, we know that the American 

 dye industry never could rely on home-grown raw materials. 



The most important and most frequently used dyes of the United States 

 in the 18th and 19th centuries were indigo for blue, madder and cochineal 

 for red, and fustic and quercitron for yellow. Logwood was the most 

 commonly used black dyeing ingredient, and sumach, though not strictly 

 a dye, so often was used in neutrals and blacks that it deserves a special 

 mention along with the other six coloring materials. Of these only quercitron 

 and sumach were native to the United States. To complete the picture 

 of dyes used in this country during the 18th and 19th centuries and to 

 suggest plants for further experimentation, appendixes B, C, and D have 

 been included. Appendix B is a list of dyes occasionally mentioned in dyers' 

 publications printed in America between 1797 and 1869; Appendix C 

 provides a list of South Carolina dye plants compiled during the first 

 decade of the 19th century; and Appendix D is a list of dye plants which 

 Thomas Cooper translated and borrowed from the work of D'Ambourney 

 and included in his 1815 dye manual. 



Most of the dyestufFs which were regarded as basic stock in dye 

 houses are discussed in detail below. The remainder are native materials 

 less frequently mentioned in dye manuals but very likely used by home 

 dyers because of their availability. 



Blue Dyes 



*INDIGO 1 {Indigofera tinctoria) also known as anil (Fr.) 



WILD INDIGO (Baptisia tinctoria, formerly known as Sophora tinctoria) 



Indigo, the dyestuff most widely used in America during the 18th and 

 19th centuries, is not a native of this country. It is a blue dye derived 

 from the leaves of a leguminous plant which grew in India and Egypt 

 long before the Christian era and later used by the Romans in making an 

 ink they called indicum. In the 16th century it was brought to Europe 

 from India by Portuguese, Dutch, and English traders. 



1 Recipes for dyes marked with an asterisk (*) are given in Section 2. 



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