Exhibitions: Rayon and Synthetic Yarns in Textiles

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  October 9, 1936: “New Creations in Textiles”, the 1936 industrial art exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum will feature Rayon and Synthetic Yarn Industries Director Philip N. Youtz announced today. It will be installed for the period December 11 to January 25 in the same galleries which housed last year the exhibition of American Glass Industries. Miss Christine Krohbiel, Designer, has been placed in charge of plans for the exhibition and has organized to assist her in her work a committee comprised of Museum officers and representatives of the loading manufacturers in the synthetic fibre field.
  
  Thirteen thousand square foot of floor space will be occupied by exhibits In galleries redesigned and decorated for this purpose, and in addition part of the exhibition will be installed in the main entrance hail of the Museum. The exhibition will show types of yarn, textiles manufactured in whole or in part from synthetic yarns, interior decorations and other objects made of such fabrics. By photographs, models and other means the several basic methods of manufacture will be demonstrated. Posters, charts and a handbook giving comprehensive information about the exhibits and various aspects of the industry are in process of preparation.
  
  The selection of tho rayon and synthetic yarns industries for the material of this year’s industrial art exhibition emphasizes a view of the arts which is characteristic of the policy of the Brooklyn Museum, with its emphasis on the contemporary and efforts to establish relations between museum materials and the life of the day, to make of the museum a living social center where contemporary problems in the arts can be solved and contemporary solutions of such problems demonstrated, where the artistic manifestations of the life of the day can be soon in. perspective by comparison with the life of other times and places. Textile manufacture and design is a fundamental industry of most civilizations. It is not too much to say that in the past civilizations have been definitely characterized and restricted by the nature of textile fibres available to them. The growth of the synthetic fibre industry within the last quarter century has for the first time made a civilization independent of natural fibre sources. The reinstallation of collections at the Brooklyn Museum [line cut off]
  
  to facilitate flexible use has especially emphasized the practicability of joint sociological and artistic studios and demonstrations using museum techniques, museum exhibition materials, both intimately related to the materials of commerce in all ages and the exhibition methods of commerce and industry.
  
  It requires intelligent and serious cooperative effort in the industrial arts, which actually bring to New York billions of dollars worth of business a year, to place the city in its true light as the style center of the world. Such effort can easily give to industrial art, which affects the entire population, the same recognition which is accorded the fine arts, too long regarded as the exclusive property of the few. Such recognition will give to the millions of skilled workers throughout the city a sense of the dignity and high quality of their product. It will teach the population of greater New York to understand and appreciate better the quality of our industrial civilization. Such general understanding and appreciation should encourage manufacturers to develop better designs, encourage the public to demand higher artistic quality in industry, making such quality profitable. By showing the public the processes and machines by which an Industrial product is transformed from the raw material to the completed article, by giving the school children of New York a knowledge of the work of men and machines which is the basis of our modern standard of living, exhibitions of industrial art can promote a better orientation of social and industrial purposes, a clearer vision of objectives in contemporary life.

  Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1931 - 1936. 07-09_1936, 131-2. View Original 1 . View Original 2

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  Date unknown, approximately 1936: Continuing at the Brooklyn Museum are several recently installed exhibitions of unusual interest. That of six American Artists - Alexander Brook, Guy Pene du Bois, Leon Kroll, Charles Sheeler and John Sloan (painters) and John Flanagan (sculptor) - occupies the larger portion of the Special Exhibition Galleries on the First Floor, while in an additional gallery held in reserve preparatory work is being pushed for the coming exhibition of the Rayon and Synthetic Yarn Industries scheduled for December 12. In the New Accessions Room, which forms the entrance to these galleries, recently purchased Egyptian antiquities include several very rare and beautiful pieces of sculpture. In the Print Galleries a large and carefully selected exhibition of Four Centuries of Portraiture in Prints offers both the amateur and the connoisseur an unusual opportunity to survey this subject and make comparisons. Adjoining the Main Entrance Hall is the American Federation of Arts travelling exhibition of the Art of the Dance in Photograph, assembled and sponsored by the Brooklyn Museum and shown there for the first time. The eighty six photographs represent dancers in action of all styles and are the work of twenty five photographers. Among the celebrated dancers depicted are Pavlowa, Mordkin, Nijinsky, Duncan, St. Denis, Wigman, Helm, Graham, Kreutzberg, Weidman, La Argentina, Escudoro, Haakon, Georgi, Shawn, Schoop, The Ballet Russo de Monte Carlo, The American Ballet of the Metropolitan Opera House and The Joos Ballet.
  
  The silver of the Cruiser Brooklyn will be taken off exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum the end of this week.
  
  The exhibitions mentioned above will close on the following dates: Six American Artists, November 29; Rayon and Synthetic Yarn Industries, January 25; recently purchased Egyptian antiquities, November 22; Four Centuries of Portraiture in Prints, December 6; The Art of the Dance in Photograph, November 29.
  

  Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1931 - 1936. 07-09_1936, 138. View Original

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  December 8, 1936: The exhibition of Rayon and Synthetic Yarn Industries which will open at the Brooklyn Museum on Friday evening, December 11th, with a reception and preview for members and guests of the Museum and to the public on Saturday, will occupy the Main Entrance Hall and adjoining special exhibition galleries.
  
  Two panels in the main entrance hall show a picture of de Chardonnot, "The Father of the Rayon Industry,” who was the first to produce nitrate cellulose-process rayon commercially. These panels contain facsimiles of the patents granted to Chardonnot in 1884 and descriptions of his process, one in his own hand writing, which were presented to the Minister of Commerce in order to obtain those patents. One of the interesting items is a facsimile of drawings of Chardonnot’s own machinery; this is the first time, to our knowledge, that those facsimiles have been shown in this country. They wore obtained through the courtesy of the Tubizo Chatillon Corporation. On either side of those two panels are great cascades of particularly beautiful rayon fabrics selected for their variety and interest of texture and color.
  
  In the first gallery there is a panel for each of the exhibitors giving the name of the company, typos of yarn produced, location and pictures of the plants, and a brief history of the company. The companies participating in this exhibition are the Viscose Company, the Rayon Department of the E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Company, American Bemberg Corporation, American Enka Corporation, Industrial Rayon Corporation, Delaware Rayon Company, Tennessee Eastman Corporation, Skonandoa Rayon Corporation, North American Rayon Corporation and Tubizo Chatillon Corporation. In this room appears a large map of the United States which shows the raw materials which go into the making of rayon and the locations of plants which manufacture rayon. In descriptive labels the Museum has adopted the American Society for Tosting Materials Standard Definitions. According to this standard, “rayon” is the generic term for all yarns made of modified cellulose.
  
  The main hall is divided into four sections: processes of manufacturing’ rayon, types of rayon yarns, textures obtainable in rayon fabrics, and factories, statistics and equipment of the industry.
  
  Three processes of manufacturing rayons are shown and illustrate all stages from the raw material to the finished yarn, by means of photographs and samples of material. The three processes are the Viscose process, the Acetate Process and the Cuprammonium Process. The Nitrate cellulose process is omitted because it is no longer in commercial use in this country. This section also shows staple fiber (cut rayon filaments) and describes the method of producing it from filament rayon. A special feature of this section Is a section of a spinning machine In constant motion loaned by the Viscose Company.
  
  The second section shows rayon yarns in all sizes and typos. These range from tho very fine multi-filament yarns to rayon monofilaments - artificial straw and horse hair spun in one coarse filament. The great variety of lusters obtainable by chemical means in rayon yarns is also demonstrated. A contrast between spun rayon yarn and filament rayon yarn is made in order to demonstrate their different qualities.
  
  The third section shows the many textures obtainable with different typos of rayon yarn and the fabrics which could not have been developed without rayons. Such fabrics are transparent velvet, chalky crepes, many typos of rough pebbly fabrics, Ninons and various textures developed in spun rayon fabrics.
  
  Textures are variously obtained by characteristics of the weave itself, through specific qualities in the yarn, and by chemical processing of the finished cloth. Enlarged photographs of basic features of fabrics are shown through the courtesy of Tennessee Eastman Corporation. The contrast between textures in rayon fabrics ten years ago and similar texture in rayon fabrics today is brought out in a book assembled by the Fabric Development Department of E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Company.
  
  The fourth section in this hall deals with the manufacture of rayon. It includes a chart showing textile fiber consumption in the United States, a summary of world rayon production and various other charts and graphs. One panel of pictures is devoted to factories, their special equipment, the natural resources which they require to operate and the way in which temperature and humidity must be controlled in a rayon factory. A second panel shows facilities which have been developed for workers in factories and for their comfort outside. Pictures of a model village show churches, schools, playgrounds and a movie theatre. Cafeterias, doctors offices and infirmiries are part of the equipment of factories. Some interesting photographs in this section are shown through the courtesy of the American Enka Company.
  
  The next room shows various types of knit fabrics along with pictures and diagrams of the various basic knits, mills, interiors and machinery. A small knitting machine is included.
  
  The last room shows woven rayon fabrics. Among the features of this room are textiles for use in gowns, draperies and upholstering. More large photographs and diagrams show three basic weaves. All fabrics are labelled in accordance with their basic types. Those labels contain information as to the type of rayon yarn or yarns used in each. Four groups of fabrics showing various finishing processes. Three of these, a washable cross-dyed Viscose and Acetate fabric and crepe and matolasse, wore obtained through the courtesy of the J. W.. Valentine Company. The fourth type of fabric was obtained through the courtesy of the American Bemberg Corporation.
  
  A costume worn in the Beaux Arts Ball which this year was entitled “Fete de Rayon-Fantastique" is on exhibition. This costume was specially selected by the Vogue Magazine for the Brooklyn Museum and demonstrates a particularly striking use of a rayon fabric other features of the Exhibition of Rayon and Synthetic Yarns in Textiles are (a) talking film designed to instruct sales people in department stores, which shows the viscose process of making rayon and is shown through the courtesy of the North American Rayon Corporation. This film will be shown on Saturday afternoons at specified hours. (b) A group of the exhibitors are offering prizes in two contests to be sponsored by the Brooklyn Museum. The first contest is open to students in technical and industrial high schools in New York City. A first prize of $25, a second prize of $15, and a third prize of $10 with three honorable mentions, will be awarded for the best 300 word essay on the subject of “What is Rayon and What has it Contributed to the Field of Textile Design" and a second contest for sales people in department stores in New York City with a first prize of $25, a second prize of $20 and a third of $10 with three honorable mentions will be offered for the best 500 word essay on “What is Rayon and Why is its Contribution Important to tho Retail Trade”. Entry blanks for these contests will be obtainable at the Museum Sales Desk and the contest will close the 10th of January, the prizes awarded the last day of the Exhibition (January 25th).

  Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1931 - 1936. 10-12_1936, 148-50. View Original 1 . View Original 2 . View Original 3

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  Winter approximately 1936: The exhibitions of RAYON AND SYNTHETIC YARNS IN TEXTILES, Department of Industrial Arts; SPINNING AND WEAVING - A HOME INDUSTRY, Division of American Rooms; PHOTOGRAPHS OF CONTEMPORARY DANCERS BY THOMAS BOUCHARD, Dance Center; A SELECTION OF PRINTS AND DRAWINGS BY ANDRE DUNOYER DE SEGONZAC FROM THE COLLECTION OF FRANK CROWNINSHIELD, Print Department; which will open Friday, December 11, will be ready for preview by art critics and representatives of the press On Tuesday, December 8.

  Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1931 - 1936. 10-12_1936, 151. View Original

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  December 12, 1936: The new lamps installed in the ground before the Brooklyn Museum were lit on Friday evening for the first time for the reception and preview opening four exhibitions, The Rayon and Synthetic Yarns in Textiles, Spinning and Weaving - A Home Industry, Prints and Drawings by Segonzac from Mr. Frank Crowninshield’s collection and Photographs of Contemporary Dancers by Thomas Bouchard. The Entrance Hall was decorated with a tall Christmas tree lit with blue lights and hung with strands of rayon simulating Santa Claus snow. A massive table carried a huge crystal bowl of poinsettias,and streamers of rayon hung in folds from the ceiling of the spacious hail to the floor twenty feet below.
  
  Among those present were:
  
  Mr. and Mrs. Edward C. Blum
  Mr. and Mrs. Philip N. Youtz
  Miss Anna Billings Gallup
  Mr. Herbert B. Tschudy
  Mrs. Alexandrina H. Harris
  Mr. Thomas Bouchard
  Miss Sophia Deiza
  Dr. and Mrs. Vinal
  Miss Stella Epstein
  Miss Anne Epstein
  Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Chase
  Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon Keck
  Dr. and Mrs. Herbert J. Spinden
  Mr. Carl 0. Schniewind
  Miss Elizabeth Haynes
  Miss Louise Chase
  Miss Helen Wallace
  Mr. Edward Krehbiel
  Miss Martha Krehbiel
  Mr. and Mrs. William Lloyd Garrison III
  Mr. Harold E. Garbarino
  Mr. David Robinson
  Mr. A. Schwartz
  Mr. Ernest Knaufft
  Miss Mary Hubbard
  Miss Mary Ferrese
  Mr. Harvey Parker
  Mr. and Mrs. Judas
  Miss Virginia Enfield
  Miss Virginia Montgomery
  Miss Cynthia Root
  Mrs. Howard Aidridge
  Mrs. Michelle Murphy
  Miss Elizabeth Cameron
  Mr. Harold Dusseldorf
  Mr. and Mrs. Herman de Wetter
  Mr. and Mrs. Donald Shelley
  Dr. and Mrs. Harold Smith
  Mr. and Mrs. Milton Schumann
  Mr. and Mrs. William Gardner
  Miss Mary Dorwood
  Miss Keith Wallace
  Miss Olivia Fancy
  Mr. Jerry O’Connor
  Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Suarez
  Miss Virginia Parker
  Mr. H. N. Westover
  Mr. Richmond Williams
  Miss Mildred C. S one
  Miss Helen McGrath
  Miss Marian C. Lepper
  Mrs. R. Edson Doolittle
  Mrs. Burgess Osterhout
  Miss Flora E. Zahn
  Mr. Harry V. Allison
  Mr. George K. Allison
  Mr. Lew Durante
  Miss Adele Owens
  Miss Jeanne Winham
  Mr. Albert Edward Windham
  Mr. James Owens
  Miss Adelaide Morris
  Mr. Fred Gardner
  Mr. Walter Grant
  Mr. F. Newton Price
  Miss Adele Robinson
  Mr. David Robinson
  Mr. W. S. Gilmore, Jr.
  Mr. and Mrs. Jean Goriany
  Mr. D. S. Brady
  Mr. J. Hadley
  Mr. Barash
  Mr. and Mrs. Edward P. Helwig
  Miss Hannah T. Rose
  Mr. Frank Crowninshield
  Miss Mary Ann Farley
  Dr. Joseph Kennoy
  Mr. and Mrs. M. D. C. Crawford
  Mr. Fred Levinthal
  Dr. L. J. Morton
  Mrs. Grace Turner
  Miss Dorothy Woods
  

  Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1931 - 1936. 10-12_1936, 145. View Original

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  Winter approximately 1936: The Brooklyn Museum will open four exhibitions simultaneously on Saturday, December 12th, and there will be a reception and preview for members and guests of the Museum on the evening of Friday, December 11th. The Department of Industrial Art, Christine Krehbiel, Acting Curator, will occupy the special exhibition galleries on the first floor with a large exhibition of Rayon and Synthetic Yarns in Textiles, showing processes of manufacture as well as finished products. The Division of American Rooms, Elizabeth Haynes, Assistant Curator, will occupy the neighboring sub-balcony gallery with an exhibition of spinning and Weaving as a Home Industry. At the opening, students from Pratt Institute will give practical demonstrations in this gallery. The Dance Center, Grant Code, Acting Director, will present an exhibition of Photographs of Contemporary Dancers by Thomas Bouchard in the Balcony Gallery, Second Floor. In the adjacent Print Gallery, the Department of Prints and Drawings, Carl 0. Schniewind, Curator, will show Drawings and Prints by Andre’ Dunoyer de Segonzac from the collection of Frank Crowninshield. During the reception on Friday the 11th, Mr. Crowninshield will give an informal talk on the collection in the Print Study Room.
  
  Exhibitors in the Rayon Show are American Bemberg Corporation, American Enka Corporation, Delaware Rayon Corporation, Rayon Department of E. I. DuPont de Nemours Company, Inc., Industrial Rayon Corporation, North American Rayon Corporation, Skernandoa Rayon Corporation, Tubise Chatillon Corporation and The Viscose Company.
  
  In connection with this exhibition the Museum is publishing a Handbook of Rayon and Synthetic Yarns to which the following articles have been contributed by experts in the field: Introduction by M. D. C. Crawford, The Scope of Rayon by Stephen S. Marks, Texture of Rayon Fabrics by Alexis Sommaripa, The Fashion Significance of Rayon by Anne Mullany, Rayon Yarns in Knit Fabrics by E. D. Fowle, Decorative Rayon Fabrics by Virginia Pegram, Science Looks at Rayon’s Serviceability, by Charles L. Simon, Spun Rayon by Alexis Sommaripa, Statistics by Stanley B. Hunt, The History of Rayon by S. A. Salvage, and technical explanations of the various processes by which rayon is fabricated, Viscose, Acetate and Cuprammoniun, by H. W. Rose, H. De Witt Smith and Theodore Wood respectively.
  
  The exhibitions will be available for press preview Tuesday December 8th.
  

  Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1931 - 1936. 10-12_1936, 146. View Original

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  Date unknown, approximately 1937: Three cash prizes for essays on "Rayon and its Influence on Textile Design” were awarded to high school students during the intermission of the concert at the Brooklyn Museum on Sunday afternoon, January 24. Vera Petroff, Brooklyn Industrial High School won first prize of $25.00; Rose Sirota, of the Central School of Business and Arts, won second prize of $15.00; James Earley of the same school won third prize of $10.00. The purpose of this prize essay contest was to further interest and information concerning synthetic textiles, in connection with the, comprehensive educational exhibition of RAYON AND OTHER SYNTHETIC YARNS recently held at the Brooklyn Museum. Contestants were required to visit the exhibition and register for the contest at the Museum. The contest was sponsored by the Department of Industrial Art of the Museum in cooperation with the American Bemberg Corporation, American Enka Corporation, Viscose Company, Delaware Rayon Company, Rayon Department of the E. I. Dupont de Nemours Company and the Tubise Chatillon Corporation. Judges were John A.. Spooner of the Viscose Company, E. C. Harrington of the Dupont company, Theodore Wood of the American Bemberg Corporation, J. H. Uliman of the Delaware Rayon Company and H. H. Anning of the American Enka Corporation. The prizes were awarded by Mr. John I. H. Baur, Curator of Contemporary Art, on behalf of Mr. Philip N. Youtz, Director, since Mr. Baur was museum staff officer of the day in charge of the museum on Sunday the 24th. The concert was by the’ Manhattan Concert Band, Giuseppo Creatore conducting.
  
  Prizes in the essay contest for members of sales staffs of New York department stores will be awarded on February 24th.
  
  The exhibition of Rayon and Synthetic Yarns is now being packed for shipment to Wilmington, Delaware, where it will be exhibited by the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts beginning the week of February 8th.

  Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1937 - 1939. 01-03_1937, 018. View Original

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  Date unknown, approximately 1937: Five cash prizes for essays on “What is Rayon and What has it Contributed to the Retail Store?” will be awarded to sales people from department stores during the intermission of the concert at the Brooklyn Museum on Sunday afternoon February 14th. Octavia K. Frees won first prize of $50.00; Abe Goldenberg won second prize of $25.00 and Rose Black won third prize of $15.00. Prizes of $5.00 each were won by Henry W. Oppenheim and Eleanor Wick. The purpose of this prize essay contest was to further interest and information concerning synthetic textiles, in connection with the comprehensive educational exhibition of RAYON AND OTHER SYNTHETIC YARNS recently held at the Brooklyn Museum. Contestants were required to visit the exhibition and register for the contest at the Museum. The contest was sponsored by the Department of Industrial Art of the Museum in cooperation with the American Bernberg Corporation, American Enka Corporation, Viscose Company, Delaware Rayon Company, Rayon Department of the E.I. Dupont de Nemours Company, and the Tubise Chatillon Corporation. Judges were C. H. Leroy of the Rayon and Synthetic Yarn Group, Miss Eleanor Pollack of the J. M. Mathes, Inc., Mrs. Louise Huston of the American Bemberg Corporation and Miss Christine Krehbiel of the Industrial Art Department. The prizes will be awarded by Mr. John Cooney, Assistant Curator of Ancient Art, on behalf of Mr. Philip N. Youtz, Director, since Mr. Cooney will be Museum staff officer of the day in charge of the Museum on Sunday February l4th. The concert will be by the Manhattan Concert Band.
  
  The exhibition of Rayon and Synthetic Yarns has been shipped to Wilmington, Delaware, where it has been exhibited by the Wilmington Society of Fine Arts, the week of February 8th.

  Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1937 - 1939. 01-03_1937, 031. View Original