Show and Tell at the College of Textiles

The Special Collections team put together our first Show and Tell event at the College of Textiles on April 20.  Over 100 visitors from the college’s faculty, students, and staff viewed the pop-up exhibit, set up in the Textiles Building Atrium.  Special Collections staff brought rare materials including an engraving of an 18th century textile loom from Diderot's Encyclopedia , books of color dye samples, and catalogs of textile samples from the Textiles Marketing Publications Collection , plus a wealth of material from University Archives collections highlighting the history of the college.

Faculty shared some of their memories and stories about the College of Textiles that they saw reflected in the photographs, graduate catalogs, newspaper clippings, commemorative woven bookmarks, and samples of textiles developed in the college (including a lint-free washcloth developed for NASA astronauts by John T. Bogdan that was used on the Gemini and Apollo space flights in 1965). Students remarked on the changes in the types of research and facilities used by the college, and many were surprised to learn that the Textiles program was originally based in Tompkins Hall, which suffered a fire and was rebuilt in 1914. One undergraduate student recognized several of the commemorative woven bookmarks that were collected and saved by her mother, who was also a student in Textiles in the 1980s. Many of these bookmarks are available in the NC State University Memorabilia Collection .

Selections from the papers of the college’s first dean Thomas Nelson drew in visitors interested in seeing his class notes, color combination experiments, and a first edition copy of his book Weaving: Plain and Fancy .  Others were interested in learning about Dean Malcolm Campbell , who received a synthetic aorta implant after a stroke, adding eight years to his life. The synthetic aorta was first developed by Campbell’s colleague William Edward Shinn , head of the Department of Knitting Technology at NC State, in 1955.  Actual samples of Shinn’s knitted artificial arteries are available in his papers , in addition to other items reflecting his career as an NC State student, professor, and department head.  Visitors were also impressed with the array of fashions on display in photographs of the early Textile Exposition and Style Shows , organized by NC State students and held from 1925 through 1943. Students from local women's colleges participated in the popular annual events by creating fashions from fabrics made by NC State students and by modeling for the shows in Pullen Hall.

Our Historical State Timeline for the College of Textiles features many more highlights in the college’s history.

We had a great time getting to know the faculty and students in the College of Textiles, and look forward to helping them use these collections and others in their teaching and research.  To view any of these collections in person, check out our online collection guides and schedule an appointment at the SCRC by sending an email to: library_specialcollections@ncsu.edu .