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Wool in America
and the Revolution of the Mill Girls
Winslow Homer,
New England
Factory Life –
Bell-Time, from
Harper’s Weekly,
July 25,1868,
by Judy Gonyeau, 1868, wood
Managing Editor engraving on
paper, image:
9 1⁄4 x 14 in.,
Smithsonian
American Art
Museum
he English immigrants who came ashore in the 1600s construct the suit he wore for his inauguration. As Washington said to
brought their acumen with them, including a taste for the Marquis de Lafayette, “I hope it will not be a great
while before it will be unfashionable for a gentleman to appear in
TBritish goods when it came to the household and the cloth-
any other dress. Indeed we have already been too long subject to
ing they wore. It has been said the Native Americans loved to sell British prejudices.”
their worn-out beaver fur to the English because they were done A brown wool suit that belonged to George Washington is in the
with it, while the immigrants sent it back to England to be made Mount Vernon collection, although this may not be the suit he wore
into proper hats and the like. That was a win-win for both sides. to his inauguration as he had a few made by the same company over
Now, fast-forward to the later 1700s as the American Revolution time. Mrs.Washington was praised for her dress made of “fine
was winding down. Having relied on England to supply everything Hartford brown Cloth” that she wore for the trip to New York for
from equipment to cloth to tea, the view of a post-connected country the inauguration.
also meant severe restrictions on imports, including the coveted quality The consistency of wool produced by the Hartford Manufactory
wool made in England. Now, America was having to was not consistent due to the lack of quality wool
create resources of its own to have those things it being raised in the country during this time, and the
wanted in its new society. inability to import sheep from abroad. The company
closed just eight years after it opened.
Wool in a Post - Smaller makers began to pop up across New
England and along the coastline. Yet, the quality of
Revolutionary America American wool remained at the root of the issue sur-
In a new, but war-ravaged, country, resources for rounding quality. Pennsylvania farmer Richard Peters
building the American society had been torn through wrote to George Washington, stating that "For some
for the sake of liberty. Animal stock was in low supply time hence this will not be a great sheep country. ... As
and the Founding Fathers were taking on the role of to fleece it is but scant pounds per sheep being rather
Founding Farmers to help establish what resources an over calculation. Wool is now in some demand but
would become the staples of this new land. I have known it unsaleable. I hope manufactures will
Sheep had a very low population as they had been continue to increase demand but the prospect of this
killed to feed the troops (on both sides) and even is distant. … I know none who have tried the sheep
those that were of the type that made for the best business and succeeded.”
mutton and the best wool were gone. Now, the coun-
try had to rebuild its stock to populate the field and During the presidency, George Washington maintained a
wardrobe with a variety of suits for different occasions, including
make cloth. Not just any cloth, but fine wool to dress several brown suits. This brown broadcloth suit owned by
the new leaders and elite of the country. Washington, with its more informal double-breasted coat, may
According to The American Wool Industry 1789- have been worn by him for dressy daytime events.
1815, the Hartford Woolen Manufactory was estab- Could it be the suit worn for his first inauguration? Possibly, but
lished as an early attempt at making wool broadcloth the evidence remains inconclusive.
for the American public. They supplied George photo: George Washington’s Mount Vernon
Washington with 13 1/2 yards of brown wool used to
20 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles
