COMMERCIAL PATTERN ARCHIVES

The Commercial Pattern Archive, an on-going Costume Commission project, is a consortium of institutions in North America and England that contain clothing pattern collections, journals, periodicals and sewing manuals. These institutions recognize that patterns and related ephemera are historically significant records that illuminate late 19th and 20th century social culture.

Patterns in the collections are cataloged in the indexed digital database, CoPA©. The database includes over 35,000 patterns with images of the garment designs and pattern schematics. Many of these records are available in the 3 CD set, CoPA Vintage Patterns: 1868-1968.

Database capabilities include:

Search the catalog in several ways for example: by garment type (dress, suits, bathing suits, maternity), by date, and by designer.
Keywords further qualify your searches, such as 'western wear', 'pedal pushers' or 'couturier'.
Images with the patterns
Print full-page reports of selected pattern with the image and pattern layout
Bookmark selected items for review and printing
List of patterns by company & number for dating

More information on the Archive and the Order Form and be found at www.uri.edu/library/special_collections/COPA.

The Center for the Archive is at the University of Rhode Island Library in Special Collections. Three major collections are included in the Center: the Betty Williams Collection, the URI Theatre Department Collection and the Joy S. Emery Collection. Other major collections represented in the database are in the Doris Stein Research Center for Textiles and Costume, at the LA County Museum of Art and the Museum of Costume in Bath England. At present, thirteen collections are participating in the Archive project.

The Commercial Pattern Archive provides a unique tool for researchers and designers to recreate or date clothing from 1868 to 1968. The Archive is an official project of Save America’s Treasures.

Project Chair: Joy Emery
Email: jemery@uri.edu