News & Notices
USITT Members Help CoPA Grow
The Commercial Pattern Archive (CoPA) has grown again with help from donations — large and small.
Donors include several USITT members who, like so many, squirreled away patterns and related materials for production research and have retired or moved onto other pursuits. CoPA is an outgrowth of two USITT Grants, in 1995 and 1999.
Betty Blyholder keeps sending wonderful treasures that have greatly augmented the collection of 1920s and 1930s patterns. Linda Sarver has donated her huge collection of patterns; both collections have been processed and added to CoPA. Ms. Sarver’s collection also included catalogs and periodicals for the library.
In March, the archive received another very important collection from Elizabeth Brown. Her collection includes rare French and American pattern sheets dating from the 1840s. Additional material includes men’s tailoring journals dating from the 1840s and many issues of fashion periodicals published by Butterick and McCall’s in the 1870s, ’80s and ’90s.
In addition, more pattern images from the Kevin L. Seligman Collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art have been scanned and added to CoPA. The database currently has over 52,000 records that are added to regularly along with the scanned images.
A partnership with Berg Fashion Library and a segment of CoPA has been inaugurated and is now on-line. The partnership is similar to the arrangement Berg Fashion Library has with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The CoPA on-line database is available by subscription. Information and rates are posted on the website. For more information about the project or to inquire about making a donation, contact Joy Emery at jemery@uri.edu.
