Fabricated Flora
Plants are routinely used in textile production. Cotton, made from cotton bolls, and linen, made from flax, are two of the most common plant-based fabrics.
Cotton has been used in textiles around the world for thousands of years. The earliest surviving examples date to the 6th millennium BCE, with archaeological finds in Peru, Pakistan, and the Jordan Valley. To make the fabric, cotton bolls are harvested, cleaned, and spun into yarn. The yarn is woven together on a loom with horizontal threads, called wefts, interlacing through vertical threads, known as warps.
Linen is one of the oldest known textiles. 30,000-year-old dyed flax fibers have been found in modern-day Georgia, and linen samples dating to around 8,000 BCE have been reported in Switzerland. To make linen, flax stalks are harvested, dried, and threshed to remove the seeds. Fibers are loosened from the stalk through a process called retting. The woody portion of the stalks is removed and the remaining fibers are separated by combs via a process called heckling. The long flax fibers are then spun into yarn and woven into linen.
Nagatsune Ōkura. Menpo yōmu / 綿圃要務. Ōsaka: Kawachiya Chūbē ... [and 2 others]; Edo: Chōjiya Heibē, Tenpō 4 [1833].
Nagatsune Ōkura was a prominent agriculturalist during Japan’s Edo period. Ōkura’s Menpo yōmu discusses how best to cultivate and use cotton. Illustrated with woodcuts, the first volume focuses on best practices for planting and harvesting, while the second volume is concerned with how the crop is used – including scenes of cotton being spun into thread for fabric.
Gossypium hirsutum L. (Cotton)
On loan from the L.H. Bailey Hortorium Herbarium.
Grecian Costume Doll, ca. 1920.
This doll wears a garment called a Chiton, a large piece of fabric that was secured over the shoulders with broaches or clasps. A common form of attire in ancient Greece (ca. 1100-850 BCE), the Chiton was typically made from linen.
One of thirty-seven dolls made by students in the Department of Household Arts and donated to the Library by Professor Dora Erway.
Linum usitatissimum L. (Flax)
On loan from the L.H. Bailey Hortorium Herbarium.