Artifact: Needle
Materials: Illustration
Dimensions:
Date: 1884
Origin: Alsace
Collection: Thérèse de Dillmont via Wikimedia Commons
License: Public Domain
Ledger Entry: Needles
Department: Sewing
Customer: Mary Fling
Ledger Page: 139
Imported From:
Product Description
Needles were a ubiquitous part of colonial life. The large quantities of textiles, needles, and pins sold in the Ramsay store, demonstrated the importance of sewing at home; including creating clothing, draperies, and embroidery. These domestic crafts were broadly considered “women's work”, but the sale of several sail needles remind us that this tool had varied uses and was also wielded by men.
Citation: Goggin, Maureen Daly, and Beth Fowkes Tobin. Women and the material culture of needlework and textiles, 1750-1950. (Farnham, England: Ashgate, 2009.); Thérèse de Dillmont. Encyclopedia of Needlework. (Alsace: Brustlein & Co, 1884).
Historical Price: 4.5 pence for 50 needles; Modern USD: $4.2
Product Variations
The databases record twenty-one purchases of needles, nine of which are identified as sail needles. Needles were sold in quantities ranging from two to one hundred and thirty. Their prices range from one and a half pence for ten sail needles to eighteen pence for a dozen sail needles.
