Sample

Description

The B. B. & R. Knight Company, located in Providence, Rhode Island, manufactured this “Fruit of the Loom” fabric sample sometime between 1920 and 1935. This sample has two original labels still attached as well as manufacturer information and advertising text stamped in blue ink. From the late 19th and into the 20th century, textile mills tended to market their goods under a variety of different brand names, or trademarks, depending on what the fabric was for and where it was being retailed. A 1921 industry directory stated that “The lines of textile products... which are now being sold under trademarks or brand names, count up into the thousands, and the number is rapidly increasing. The great number of branded or trademarked goods makes it impossible for any jobber, department store, or retail establishment buyer to know the first-hand distributors of all these various products.” Many of these brand names were short-lived, but some, like Fruit of the Loom, are still in use today. This object is one of a large group transferred to Winterthur from the American Textile History Museum when it closed in 2017.