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Grimshaw Brothers Silk company fabric swatches

We are starting to kick-off some digital projects here at the Kent State University Library, and identifying some great content from not only our main library, but also the branch and regional libraries.

Our first project will be to digitize two bound books of fabric swatches from the Grimshaw Brothers Silk company, dating from the late 19th century. The paper is quite brittle, but the fabric swatches are in surprisingly good condition.

We will scan these swatches in a high DPI on an overhead scanner. Our hope is to build a collection that may be of use for our Fashion program here at Kent State. The Tech Style Lab on campus has been a great resource to consult during our research phase. With these scans, users could use the small fabric samples to create larger pieces of fabric and perhaps create new designs using some of these swatches.

I've included a sample page below. Check back for more details later this fall.


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