Tool (for textiles) (Textile printing block)

Description

This print block, used for printing on fabric, was created by the artist Ruth Terry Wolfson. Wolfson was born in Russia during the late 19th century and immigrated to the United States with her family at a young age. Originally planning a career in teaching, she attended the Pratt Institute in New York and graduated in 1915 with a degree in art instruction. While studying at Pratt, Wolfson developed an interest in block printing on textiles, and a need for supplemental income during the 1920 economic recession spurred her to ply her talents in New York’s growing garment industry. From around 1920 to 1940, Wolfson performed piece work out of her New Jersey home, receiving reems of textiles from various New York manufacturers and printing patterns on them using blocks she hand carved and designed. This eventually became the main source of income for her family, and Wolfson’s prints appeared on clothing and home goods ranging from dresses, ties, and bathing suits to pillows, placemats, and curtains. She retired from commercial printing by 1940. Wolfson created hundreds of print blocks during her career, and Winterthur’s collection includes over 450 of them. This block is constructed of linoleum, carved in relief and nailed to a wooden base. By itself, the carved design may only look like abstract lines, but when combined with another block it would have created the ears, face markings, and other details of a hunched over wolf. A drawing on the reverse shows what the full design would have looked like, with this block sketched in pencil and the partner block painted in black ink. The matching block is not in Winterthur’s collection – it may have never been made, or it could have been lost or destroyed before being donated to the museum – but even alone, this object provides useful insight into Wolfson’s design process. This object is one of a large group transferred to Winterthur from the American Textile History Museum when it closed in 2017.