Clothing Through American History by Staples Kathleen A. Shaw Madelyn

Author:Staples, Kathleen A.,Shaw, Madelyn.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ABC-CLIO
Published: 2013-05-04T04:00:00+00:00

Portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Mifflin, 1773, by John Singleton Copley. Copley has painted Sarah Mifflin at work weaving on a tape loom. (The Philadelphia Museum of Art/Art Resource, NY)

The probate inventories of Ezekial Bascom (1747) and Asa Childs (1756) from Deerfield, Massachusetts, both included tape looms (Inventory of Ezekiel Bascom; Inventory of Asa Childs). Bascom was undoubtedly a weaver by trade; his inventory listed a loom and tackle, spinning wheels, cards, combing hooks, hatchels, sheep shears, and a quantity of wool and flax. Childs’s family may have assisted him in some of his work; his tools were limited to spinning wheels, a reel, shears, a flax brake, five pairs of knitting needles, and a set of shoemaker’s tools, as well as raw wool, cotton, and flax. The tape looms may have been professional equipment or tools used by the women of the house for making personal items.

John Singleton Copley (1738–1815) painted Mrs. Sarah Morris Miflin (1747–1790), wife of Philadelphia legislator Thomas Miflin, at work on her tape loom in 1773, in a joint portrait with her husband. Having her portrait painted with this symbol of industriousness may have been a political statement as well as a personal one. Thomas Miflin’s political leanings made him a member of the Continental Congress shortly after the portrait was finished, and Mrs. Miflin’s fancy work may also have been her genteel contribution to domestic necessities—weaving silk tapes for trims, drawstrings, or stay laces in accordance with the ideals of the nonimportation agreements.

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