USDA Textile Publications Collection

Collection

Identifier: MS0308

Staff Only

Content Description

The USDA Textile Publications Collection consists of brochures, reprints, leaflets, bulletins, and newspaper clippings related to clothing, textile history, fashion, fabrics, construction, consumer advice, and sewing machines.

Dates

Creation: 1920-1962

Conditions Governing Access

Contact Special Collections for access.

Organizational History

During the 1920s and 1930s, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Division of Textiles and Clothing, a unit of the Bureau of Home Economics, was responsible for research on textiles and clothing. The division was renamed the Textiles and Clothing Division in 1937. Reorganization of the USDA in 1942 placed research on textiles and clothing under the Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics within the Agricultural Research Administration. When the USDA reorganized again in 1953, the Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics was re-designated as a division under the new Agricultural Research Service (ARS). In 1957, responsibility for textile and clothing research moved to the Clothing and Housing Research Division, Institute of Home Economics, ARS. Since the mid-1960s, research on textiles and clothing has taken place in ARS regional laboratories.