This exhibit features vintage textile fiber boards, showcasing a collection of fiber samples used for teaching in the Textile Department at the Rhode Island School of Design. These samples were generously donated to the Visual Materials and Resource Center (VMRC) by former faculty member Sally Barker, who received them from Maria Tulokas, the head of the department, between 2005 to 2020. Concerned that the boards might be discarded while in storage, Maria ensured they were preserved for educational purposes. Believed to have been assembled by a mill, these samples date back to the 1940s and 1950s, reflecting the rich history and evolution of textile education. Complementing these fiber samples are additional selections from RISD’s Special Collections Archives, which illustrate the craft of fiber dyeing and weaving over the last 125 years. Highlights from the RISD Archives include a photograph of Textile Department head, Maria Tulokas, teaching in 1984 and a fabric analysis sheet with notes, dated 1910-1911, created by RISD Textile student Mary Agnes Gray Dexter.

Poster by Isabella Choi, Illustration '25

Special Collections

Fibershed by Sarah Nicholls, 2023

Dyeing with marigolds by Bethany C. Rahn

The printing of cotton fabrics with the dyestuffs of Leopold Cassella & Co., 1905

The American dyer: a practical treatise on the coloring of wool, cotton, yarn & cloth by Richard H. Gibson, 1873

Colour-matching on textiles: a manual intended for the use of dyers, calico printers, and textile colour chemists, containing coloured frontispiece, twenty-nine illustrations, and fourteen dyed patterns in appendix by David Paterson, 1901

The British Colour Council dictionary of colour standards: a list of colour names refering to the colours shown in the companion volume, 1934