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Object Timeline

-0001

1939

  • We acquired this object.

2004

2014

2016

2025

  • You found it!

Master Weaver's Thesis Book, Systeme de la Mecanique a la Jacquard

This is a Master weaver's thesis book. It is dated 1848 and we acquired it in 1939. Its medium is label: board covers; pen and ink with gouache on paper pages; cotton, linen and silk samples. It is a part of the Textiles department.

With an ingenious new Jacquard mechanism added to a standard treadle loom, silks could be woven with intricate imagery by a single weaver, who would painstakingly record, as here, crucial details of the complicated "interface" between his machine and his art. Previously, such work obliged a weaver to employ several helpers. Thus the Jacquard technology drove down prices for consumers in the new middle class, and eliminated jobs in the working class, helping to inspire various socialist and Luddite rebellions.

"Faster, Cheaper, Newer, More: Revolutions of 1848" 6/4/2004 ---1/9/2005

It is credited Museum purchase from Trustees' Book Appropriation.

Our curators have highlighted 2 objects that are related to this one.

  • Program Drawings
  • color pencil on paper, mounted on board.
  • Richard Landis.
  • 63.2017.13

Its dimensions are

H x W x D (closed): 44.8 × 30.5 × 5.8 cm (17 5/8 × 12 × 2 5/16 in.) 440 pages

Cite this object as

Master Weaver's Thesis Book, Systeme de la Mecanique a la Jacquard; France; label: board covers; pen and ink with gouache on paper pages; cotton, linen and silk samples; H x W x D (closed): 44.8 × 30.5 × 5.8 cm (17 5/8 × 12 × 2 5/16 in.) 440 pages; Museum purchase from Trustees' Book Appropriation; 1939-40-1

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Faster, Cheaper, Newer, More: The Revolutions of 1848.

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18556803/ |title=Master Weaver's Thesis Book, Systeme de la Mecanique a la Jacquard |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=10 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>