Textile fragment, printed

Description

The floral motifs on this blue textile fragment were designed and printed 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. The floral frame around this textile was printed using blocks 2017.0019.121.277 and .278, while the interior flowers were printed with blocks .124, .145, and .146 A and B. This print is clearly incomplete; Wolfson might not have been happy with the design, or perhaps these were only tests to see how different motifs looked together. This object is one of a large group transferred to Winterthur from the American Textile History Museum when it closed in 2017.