Bradford College

The Scoping Grant has enabled Bradford College to restore the correct author and purpose to one of the most prized collections held in its historic Textile Archive. This collection is a teaching aid, put together by Bradford Technical College staff from 1899 to 1922. Bradford is City of Culture 2025, and this new confirmation of the identity of the collection offers historians of our local culture a far richer primary research resource, as it evidences the education of our youth, while Bradford currently celebrates being the UK’s youngest city. It also offers richer inspiration for artists to interpret for the many exhibitions and events being planned for City of Culture 2025. Around the year 2000, the collection of 996 Pattern Cards was catalogued incorrectly, and attributed to local textile manufacturers Hind Robinson, without any provenance being recorded. Although the Bradford College Textile Archive does hold exquisite examples of Hind Robinson’s Pattern Books, Design Books and the Trends Services they subscribed to, dating to the 1920s and 1930s, the fresh eyes of a new archivist sensed a mistake had been made, and research began to discover the true history and creator of the Pattern Card Collection. The scoping grant allowed a consultant to examine and evaluate the Pattern Card Collection, and the findings gave us validation of the scope, rarity, value, and significance regarding textile education and the local industry it reflected.

The collection contains 996 Pattern Cards, the vast majority of which measure 37.5cm (width) x 55cm (height). These contain fabric swatches dated c.1850-1922, and some ancient Mummy Cloths which were compared with contemporary linen cloth. Other fabrics include fine silk jacquards, rayon, experimental synthetics, velvets, mohair, woollens, and worsteds. There could be as many as 13,000-14,000 fabric swatches.

Most of the fabrics mounted on the cards were designed and woven by the students during the 1890s-1920s to a professional standard, and document the fashions of the time, the processes, weave structures and embroidery techniques taught, and the new fabrics enabled by the textile industries’ technical and engineering developments.

The collection is complimented by over 200 Bradford Technical College Student Workbooks holding lecture notes and fabric samples designed and woven by the students dating from 1898 to 1963, the majority being pre 1914, 31 Session Books containing fabrics designed and woven by the students during the academic year, dating from 1894 to 1914, Competition entries by Bradford College students in the Bradford Textile Society and Manchester Textile Institute competitions 1912-1969 (298 entries of fabric samples on card mounts) and Manchester Textile Institute competition books (25 volumes) of winning samples in the Lieutenant Harry Dent Crompton Prize Fund Scheme for the design and structure of woven fabrics 1919-1944, together with the Trade Journals The Textile Manufacturer dating from 1879 to 1915 and The Wool Record dating from 1915. The historic fabric samples from the 1850s-1880s show the fashions dating from this time and there are also a small number of authentic mummy cloths presented with a contemporary linen cloth for technical comparison and analysis. The student workbooks and session books hold vital information to assist in the technical identification of the fabrics.

In particular, our collection contains works by the following well-known designers:

• Selina Kate North: first female recipient in City & Guilds Textile Design in 1897, this was a rare occurrence in this male industry.
• Benjamin Collins: well-known textile silk designer who remained in the industry.
• Frank Hopkinson: who went on to become Director of the Bradford Dyers Association.
• Ossie Stroud (formally Strauss): owner of Drummonds Mill, a well-known textile mill in Bradford.
• William Arnold Stewart: Head Designer at Listers & designed for Liberty’s of London. He became an advisor to the Palestinian Government on Arts and Crafts.
• Alvaro Guavara: Chilean painter, writer, poet, and boxer. He studied both Textiles and Art at Bradford Art College from 1909 to 1912. He became a painter, and his remaining paintings which were not destroyed in World War II, are highly regarded, and can be seen in the Tate and the National Gallery in Melbourne.

We are working on recommendations to improve the online presence, digitisation, and collection management of the Archive. The Scoping Grant has highlighted the opportunity for a funding bid through the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which will be explored in order to continue inspiring our students and working together to transform lives.