Library Collections: Visual Still: Item Description

Woman seated at loom weaving
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Visual Still Information

Title: Woman Working On Loom
Original caption: ART FABRIC WEAVING. – The blind weaver depresses certain pedals which lift the warp threads in characteristic groups. The weaver, having memorized these, can readily distinguish them by touch. These patterns are described to her by a seeing supervisor. When they are too difficult to be memorized the blind girl writes out the description in raised characters, thus securing notes for reference and guidance. To “work in” the design, skeins of colored thread, assorted by the designer, are given to the blind weaver, who arranges them (as in the photograph) around such groups of raised threads as the design prescribes. After “trying in” each row of colored “pattern threads” the weaver throws her shuttle with the woof thread to make the body of the cloth.
Creator: n/a
Date: 1908
Format: Photograph
Publication: First Annual Report of the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind
Source: Mount Holyoke College Library
Control no.: IZB M3
Location: p.14
Keywords: Blind; Economics; Employment; Labor; Labor & Commerce; Massachusetts; Massachusetts Commission For The Blind; Sensory Disability; Sheltered Workshop; Social Welfare & Communities; Social Welfare & Employment; Work
Topics: Government, Policy & Law; Institutions, Organizations & Corporations; Social Movements & Advocacy