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White fabric printed in blue with a design of a man seated on a flying eagle with the inscription "To Philadelphia." Background has a scrolling vine pattern. Made to commemorate the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876.
Away to the Centennial We Go
Author: Virginia Pollock This curious textile was manufactured in the 1870s by American Print Works which was located in Fall River, Massachusetts. Featuring a motif of a figure taking flight on the back of an eagle, the intended destination of the traveler is revealed with the repeated phrase “TO PHILADELPHIA.” In 1876, many individuals were...
Image features a length of fabric printed with scenes of New York City landmarks, in black on off-white. Scroll down to read the blog about this object.
A Big Apple Souvenir
Author: Leigh Wishner In celebration of the third annual New York Textile Month, members of the Textile Society of America will author Object of the Day for the month of September. A non-profit professional organization of scholars, educators, and artists in the field of textiles, TSA provides an international forum for the exchange and dissemination...
Image features a bookmark woven to show commemorative pictures, inscriptions. Top to bottom: a coat of arms of York; large building topped with flags, inscription "Yorkshire Fine Arts and Industrial Exhibition opened July 1866 Rt. Hon. James Meek Lord Mayor of York, President", garlanded portrait of a man, Roman ruins, and the inscription: "MULTANGULAR TOWER Each ivi'd arch and pillar lone, plead haughtily for glories gone." At bottom, heart-shaped motif with floral accents in red and blue. Colors: black, grey, orange, purple, green, on white ground. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
A Rather Peculiar Looking Jacquard Loom
This silk bookmark was made by the workshop of Thomas Stevens to commemorate the 1866 Yorkshire Fine Arts and Industrial Exposition. From the top down, the bookmark shows the coat of arms of the city of York, an image of the pavilion built for the exposition, a portrait of the Mayor of York, James Meek,...
Souvenirs of the Grand Tour
This jewelry parure, or suite, is indicative of a custom that was unique to its time and class. The Grand Tour was a traditional trip taken by upper class young men and women, with the goal of exposing them to the artistic riches of France and Italy, thereby completing their education. These long sojourns became...
Centennial Souvenir
This souvenir handkerchief of Horticultural Hall at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia is unusual for its diagonal placement of the building in the center of the square. In the collection at the New York Historical Society there is a printed textile with six uncut handkerchiefs – there are views of the Art Gallery, Horticultural...
Shared Travel Memories, and Fireworks!
With the July 4th weekend upon us, the first thing that comes to mind is travel, and fireworks! Heading out to the beach, taking a road trip, finding a nice quiet place to relax. I felt the Souvenir wallpaper was a perfect way to explore this idea. Consisting of a series of snapshots, almost post...
The First American World’s Fair
The 1853 Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations was New York’s answer to the groundbreaking, wildly successful 1851 Great Exhibition in London. It originally took place in what is now Bryant Park, in an enormous Crystal Palace built to rival the iconic Crystal Palace of the previous exhibition. The fair was the brainchild of...
View across a meadow toward a grotto in the Boboli Gardens which features a fountain. The central portal is flanked by sculptures. At left a wall and the corridor leading to the Uffizi. Beneath it, a tree and bench with a figure. At right, a wall with a view of houses in the distance. A group of figures approaches at extreme right.
Grotto-esque
In the eighteenth century, many Italian artists produced views of popular tourist destinations to sell as souvenirs to travelers on the Grand Tour. This drawing by an unknown artist shows the Grotta Grande in the Boboli Gardens of Florence. Visible within the grotto’s chambers are Paris and Helena, sculpted in 1560 by Vincenzo di Rafaello...
Hey, Batter Batter
Printed fabric novelties were popular promotional devices in the early twentieth century, a signal of the growing influence of marketing in American material culture. This souvenir square, dating from 1912 and featuring baseball greats Christy Mathewson and “Home Run” Baker, among others, was a premium offered by Helmar and Turkey Red Tobacco companies in exchange...
Come, All Ye Weary
Liberty and immigration: here are values so intimately tied with the history of the United States and New York in particular, that they seem to permeate one another. The year 1974 was a strenuous one for the US. The recent end of the Vietnam War left open wounds still seething in the minds of millions,...
A Souvenir from the Fair
The 1939 World’s Fair at Flushing Meadows Park in Queens was themed the ‘World of Tomorrow.’ Visitors came away with visions of radio-controlled highways, mechanical milking machines, and the 7-foot-tall Westinghouse robot. Many also left with Fair memorabilia, from the pins given away at the Futurama exhibition that read ‘I have seen the future,’ to...
Fan design with a landscape filled with Italian ruins
Putting the Fan in Fantasy
From the eighteenth century, painted fans were one of the most popular souvenirs for any grand tourist visiting Italy. In this period, fans were part of the complex network of courtly behavior and aristocratic social codes, and they were also indispensable elements for coquetry. Such fans were made with a variety of materials such as...
Woven souvenir based on the painting 'Portrait of Henry VIII' (c. 1540) by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543). "W.W.L. CO. 1963 DEL. H.H." appears below the portrait. Black, burgundy, golden-yellow, white, and salmon on white warp.
Not Just Any Label
In 1978, Cooper Hewitt received a gift of twenty-two jacquard woven souvenir portrait ribbons from Lisa Taylor, the museum’s director at the time. The series was produced by the Warner Woven Label Company, Inc. of Paterson, New Jersey, which every year made a single souvenir ribbon based on a famous master portrait painting in Western...