April 28, 1934
T H
Е
STATE
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ON the border of the famous
Biltmorc estates, in the pictur¬
esque little village of Biltmore,
which nestles drowsily among the rug¬
ged mountains of the Carolina high¬
lands, is located the Biltmorc Indus¬
tries. which has grown from a little
mountain industrial school into the
largest hand weaving industry in the
world.
Thirty-three years ago, Mrs. George
W. Vanderbilt, realizing the difficulties
under which the mountain people wove,
sought to improve their crude methods
by establishing an industrial school in
which the mountain buys and girls could
learn weaving, needlecraft and other
useful arts.
The mountain people had been weav¬
ers for generations but their methods
were crude, their work slow and their
processes limited. With the establish¬
ing of this school, wool that had former¬
ly been carded and spun by hand on
the simplest form of hand looms by
throwing the shuttlo over with one hand
and catching it with the other, was now
spun on looms improved and built of
white oak by boys in the woodcarving
shops.
No longer were shuttles thrown by
hand but with a cord, which greatly in¬
creased the rate of speed. Carding and
spinning machinery was bought and
cloth which formerly had been dyed in
the few colors that could be obtained
from black walnut, yellow hickory bark
and the like were dyed in a wide range
of fast colors and with proper dyeing
methods.
Crude wool was taken from mountain
homes, dyed bv hand, carded, spun and
made into warps and returned to the
mountain homes, where it was then
woven by hand. After being returned
to the school, the wool would be scoured
and finished and placed in the sun on
tender-hook fences to dry and shrink.
Tourists who visited the school would
see the cloth and usually purchase some,
the money going to the mountain people
who had woven it. With the demand
for this handwoven cloth growing faster
and faster, the industry grow too large
to be conducted as a school. Tourists
and their friends who taught the cloth
would continually re-order until the de¬
mand was far greater than the supply.
Early in 1917, when Mrs. Vanderbilt
was busily engaged in war work, she
sold the industry and hand looms to
F. L. Seely, builder of Grove Park Inn.
the finest resort hotel in the world. This
was a sacrifice to Mrs. Vanderbilt, for
she had grown to love the school, but
she realized that it was not fair to hold
back such meritorious work for senti¬
mental reasons. She was rewarded by
seeing the workers and weavers estab¬
lished in n larger shop building near the
The Largest Hand weaving
Industry in the World
doth, which
fades nor
shape, and,
a I in
о
s I
THE moin building of Biltmorc Industries, which hos
grown from a humble ond small start to the largest
hondweoving industry in the world. It has proved
to be a big thing for many of the mountain people.
By MAJEL IVEY SEAY
site of the old home of the industrial
school.
With the building of better looms,
the improvement of dye* and the adding
of better facilities throughout, the in¬
dustry lias grown to lx1 twice as large
as any handweaving industry in the
entire world.
Biltmore homespuns are made of
strictly all new sheep's wool with no
adulterations or mixtures of cotton or
anything else. They are hand dyed
with vegetable and alizarine «Ives guar¬
anteed not to fade. The wonderful re¬
sults with the dyes are due to the purity
of the waters from the mountain springs
on Mount Mitchell, the highest moun¬
tain east of the Rockies. After the
wool is dyed, spun and woven, it is
scoured iu hot ivory soapsuds for five
hours. The cloth is woven entirely by-
native men.
If there is anything in the world that
can produce a better wool than is pro¬
duced by Biltmore Industries, they do
not know what it is. That the cloth
wears too long is the only criticism that
has ever been made of the homespuns.
Thousands of satisfied customers vouch
for the long life and beauty of the
never
loses its
we miglit
say, never
wear* out. As thchoine-
«puns are practically
the same on both sides
of the cloth, many
men’s suit* and other
garments have been
worn several years and
then turned inside out
: nd made over.
Customers of the
Biltmore Industries
are from nearly every
country in flic world —
China, Japan, Nor¬
way, Switzerland, Uru¬
guay, Chile, Alaska,
Hawaiian Islands, Ber¬
muda, England, Scot-
land, Mexico, Cuba —
and practically every
city in the United
States.
However, homespun
is not all that is made
at the Biltmorc Industries. In the
hand-carving shops, tea trays, glove,
card and cigarette taxes, health brushes,
tallows, book racks and book ends,
picture frames, paper knives, rulers,
gothic benches, bedside tables and many
other attractive novelties are made.
Many beautiful and unusual articles
are also made in the needle-ernft shops.
One silver and two gold medals have
been won by the Industries. One of
the students of the school became n
sculptor and another won a gold medal
at an exposition.
The Biltmore Industries is perform¬
ing a double service in putting health
into health clothing which also contains
the greatest wearing qualities, and in
supplying the native mountaineers with
work and valuable instruction. Al¬
though the Industries is proud of the
world-wide popularity which it has
achieved, its greatest ambition is not
popularity for itself alone, but to spread
health to the world through health
clothing.