the objects
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  The objects under scrutiny are two clumps of fabric samples located in the records of the Board for the Protection of Aborigines in Victoria, housed at the Victorian Public Record Office. The box concerns tenders and accounts for provision of rations, clothing, housing and amenities to Kooris living on reserves and missions or supplied via local guardians and depots, between 1904 and 1918.

One set of seven fabric samples is held together by a fold back pin. There are three small woollen pieces, two brown and one green. Behind them is a note ‘Penal Samples. Cloth (Tweed) Grey Woollen to come.’ Behind this note are attached two pieces of strong, cotton, khaki fabric on which is written in pencil ‘1/- substitute Wincey’. Behind this is a piece of blue denim with a small label stapled on the reverse, reading “Empire Pa_ent 2100 26/27~ 2/-”. The largest piece at the rear bears a Hicks, Atkinson & Sons Pty Ltd label identifying it as denim.

A single denim sample found pictured with the set of seven has a fragment of a memo on it, with the letterhead reading “Pe…”.

Correspondence in the same box indicates that the first three small woollen samples are from the Penal Establishment Pentridge, the khaki cotton samples are ‘defence cloth,’ and the lone denim sample is from Penal Establishment Pentridge (the memo fragment matches an intact memo from Pentridge).

The other set consists of two pieces of thick, soft fabric, one dark blue and one brown. These are attached to a memo dated 30/5/1916 from the Penal Establishment Pentridge to the BPA stating that attached are samples of coloured moleskin.

Definitions

Wincey : strong lightweight fabric of wool and cotton or linen
Denim : cotton twill fabric
Tweed : rough surfaced woollen cloth
Moleskin : thick, twilled cotton cloth with shaved surface
Fabric : generic term for all fibrous constructions
Textile : woven fabric
Cloth : flexible fabric (not necessarily woven)
Worsted : fine, smooth yarn made from combed wool; fabric made from same

Images

Set of seven fabric samples: tweed, 'defence cloth', denim

Set of two fabric samples: moleskin

Images of fabric samples reproduced with the permission of the Keeper of Public Records, Public Record Office Victoria, Australia.
PROV, Board for the Protection of Aborigines, VPRS 1694/P0, Unit 2.

 

 

[ home ] [ the objects ] [ textile manufacture ] [ missionary context ]
[ inmates ] [ clothing in museum collections ] [ material culture research ]
[ conclusion ] [ bibliography ]