Ladies' Silk-Culture Society of California ledger
Finding aid created by San Francisco History Center staff using RecordEXPRESS
San Francisco Public Library. San Francisco History Center
2019
San Francisco Public Library
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San Francisco, California 94102
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Title: Ladies' Silk-Culture Society of California ledger
Dates: 1889-1890
Collection Number: SFH 558
Creator/Collector:
Ladies' Silk Culture Society of California
Extent: 1 volume
Repository:
San Francisco Public Library. San Francisco History Center
San Francisco, California 94102
Abstract: Income and disbursements for a silk culture promotional organization
Language of Material: English
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Ladies' Silk-Culture Society of California ledger. San Francisco Public Library. San Francisco History Center
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Biography/Administrative History
The Society was organized and incorporated in 1885, formed out of the California Silk Culture Association. The Society would
promote silk culture and teach farmers' daughters how to cultivate cocoons and establish filatures (where silk is reeled from
silkworm cocoons), with the goal of women supporting a family with a small amount of capital and labor. At its first meeting
January 8, 1885, Charles Wolcott Brooks was elected president, and Mrs. Louise Rienzi secretary; board members included George
C. Perkins, Theodore H. Hittell, Elise C. Hittell, and Ellen C. Sargent, amongst others. In 1886, a building and mulberry
orchard of 6,000 trees was purchased at Piedmont, near Oakland, with 100 women being employed there. California would not
make appropriations for sericulture after 1888, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture declined funding in 1891. Warren
B. Ewer was elected President of the Board of Directors of the Society in April 1889. The Piedmont orchard proved to be a
poor location for raising silkworms, and the property was sold to Ewer's son, Thomas B. Ewer.
Scope and Content of Collection
First volume entry records note about U.S. appropriations, July 1889, and last entry of August 13, 1890 records payment of
$16.80 to Miss Lizzie Rollins for cocoons. Entries skip pages within the volume. Entries include payments to Samuel A. Luce,
for his work as superintendent at Piedmont station, as well as wages for the Society's secretary, Mrs. Leonidas E. Pratt;
payments to individual women for cocoons supplied; payment for labor and materials, horse shoeing, advertising, taxes.
Sericulture -- California.
Sericulture -- California -- History -- 19th century.
Women -- California -- History -- 19th century.
Luce, Samuel A., b. 1843
California Silk Culture Association
Ladies' Silk Culture Society of California
Piedmont (Calif.)
Account books