Scope and content:

Series I, "Patterns" comprises commercial sewing patterns dating from the late 19th century up to the mid 20th century. The series mainly includes individual patterns published by large pattern making companies such as Advance,Butterick, McCall's, Simplicity, and Vogue. Included are small scaled pattern plates, full size pattern sheets, overprinted pattern sheets, and tissue paper patterns. These patterns include designs for women's clothing, men's clothing, children's clothing, and occasionally include fabric swatches.

Arrangement:

This series is organized alphabetically by company name and then by pattern number. These companies would reuse pattern numbers and there are several instances of duplicate numbers applied to different patterns. Pattern numbers can, but often do not correspond to any specific line of patterns, date range, or type of garment. In order to simplify the record, the archivist created subseries for each pattern company and then organized by pattern number.

Contents

Access and use