Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Guide to the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Clothing

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Clothing
Creators:
Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
Dates:
circa 1833-1944
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
0.59 Cubic feet
consisting of 1 box, 4 folders, 2 oversize folders, 1 map case folder, plus digital images of some collection material.
Repository:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Clothing forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
This material consists primarily of scattered correspondence on letterĀ­ head stationery, bills/receipts, advertising cards, clothing labels, printed advertisements, fabric samples, business cards, catalogues, price lists, coins and import/export documents from importers, manufacturers and dealers of clothing. The clothing is intended for men, women and children. Custom and ready-made garments were offered by many of the establishments. There are a few companies that offered second hand clothing and others repaired and cleaned garments. Some of the advertisements suggest that credit could be obtained but would be treated like cash. Most of the businesses also sold a variety of other furnishings including shoes, boots, hats, gloves and furs. A number of advertisements for rubber, oiled and outer garments are found among these materials. Other dry goods items sold by these companies but not necessarily related to clothing are table covers, diapers, horse covers, bicycles and sewing machines.
A few of the companies specialize in garments for one group particularly men's furnishings. Most of the companies, however, are clothing houses for the whole family. For clothing companies specializing in garments for one particular gender group see appropriate subject categories. Additional materials on clothing houses represented in this material can also be found in other subject categories. The subject terms that follow are the appropriate Warshaw categories to consult.
Related Publications contains an article discussing the manufacture of ready-made clothing published in 1857.
A number of the clothing establishments used advertising cards with images of the presidents.
Materials are organized alphabetically by name of company. There are a few folders of material arranged by type: general receipts, related articles, clothing labels, import/export documents and miscellaneous items.

Administration

Author
Vanessa Broussard-Simmons and Nicole Blechynden
Sponsor
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Clothing is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.
Processing Information
In 2016, with funding provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund, the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History implemented the use of minimal level processing standards to increase information about and facilitate access to more of our collections. A large portion of stored material from the original acquisition received minimal level processing, which resulted in additions to this Subject category. This effort included basic arrangement and replacement of non-archival housing for long-term stability, but staples and other fasteners have not all been removed. Revisions to the encoded finding aid were made to reflect the added content in context to the previously processed material.
Minimal level processing and enhancement of the machine-readable finding aid completed by Nicole Blechynden, September 2017.

Using the Collection

Preferred Citation note
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Conditions Governing Access note
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
Conditions Governing Use note
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Materials in the Archives Center

Materials in the Archives Center
Archives Center Collection of Business Americana (AC0404)

Forms Part Of


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Ephemera Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Business ephemera Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Dry-goods Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Men's clothing Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women's clothing Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Children Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Shoes Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Gloves Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Hats Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Uniforms Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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