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Title
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Reed Loom Company "Cambridge" Loom
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Accession Number
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1999.4.1
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Accession Date
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December 15, 1999
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Accession Creator
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Carm Hudson
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Depositor
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Janet E. Kellett
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Description
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Large wooden antique hand loom. Stamped "USVA" inside the front left leg, which explains the army drab cloth that makes up the front apron. This particular loom was part of a VA hospital rehab program that used weaving to help soldiers returning home from WWI and II. Weaving as therapy began after the Civil War, though this loom was not in production at that time. Weaving was used to help soldiers regain mobility after severe injury, and to help calm and stabilize soldiers who were too traumatized to return to civilian life right away. At some point after use at the VA, it was converted to make rag rugs. The depositor reported that it was used by a 7th Day Adventists Women's School in Tennessee.
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Creator
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Reed Loom Company, Ohio
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Date
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c. 1925
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Format
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Wooden with cast iron hardware, approximately 5 feet wide by 6 feet long.
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Storage Location
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Mill Gallery
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Curatorial Information
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The original loom would have been sold with a 15 dent reed (for fine cloth), but the current reed is clearly a rag rug reed.
The loom is not in good operating condition. Next steps:
— Cloth advance mechanism. This was disassembled and tied to the loom. Will need to reattach.
— Reed. It would be best to have a reed with a finer set. New reeds are a couple hundred dollars at this size, but local weavers may have some that we can get for a donation.
— Shuttles. We need to locate some shuttles to use with the loom. We can use stick shuttles in a pinch (cheap but they're slow and difficult to handle).
We have a bundle of heddles separate from the loom; need to find those to be able to weave more threads.
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Nomenclature
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>Category 04: Tools & Equipment for Materials
Textileworking T&E
Textile Manufacturing Equipment
Loom
Hand Loom
