• Overview of the Collection
• Historical Information
• Scope and Content Note
• Arrangement
• Restrictions
• Related Material
• Administrative Information
• Inventory
• Subject File 1861 – 2004
• Publications 1954-1983
• Promotional Material 1962-1980

Overview of the Collection

Historical Information

In 1863 tailor, Ebenezer Butterick, and his seamstress wife, Ellen, established the Butterick Company, the oldest recognized commercial clothing paper pattern company in the U.S. in Sterling, Massachusetts. Butterick was the innovator of standard sizing for paper patterns for clothing. Initially the patterns were cut and sold for children’s and men’s clothing and then expanded to women’s garments in 1866. Unlike his competiors, Butterick took out patents on the process. The company was moved to Fitchburg, MA and then to New York City by 1867. Aimed at the home sewer rather than the commercial dressmaker, the patterns quickly became popular.To promote the fashions, Butterick published the Ladies Quarterly Report of Broadway Fashions and Metropolitan in 1869. The latter evolved into The Delineator. Butterick began a partnership with Jones Warren Wilder in 1867. Ellen died in 1871. When the company reorganized in 1881, Butterick maintained a third interest in the company, Wilder and Butterick’s brother in law, Abner Pollard, managed the com any business. Wilder died in 1894 and the company was sold to Jones Wilder’s son, George, around 1898. Butterick died in 1903. The company continued with fluctuating success surviving the Depression and War years of the 1940s and the Post-War years as the population boomed and moved to the suburbs. In 1961 Butterick Co. licensed the name of Vogue from Conde Naste. Vogue patterns had begun in 1905 as a feature of the magazine of the same name. Butterick continued to innovate its designs to attract a busier but still fashion conscious clientele. In 1974 Butterick introduced “See and Sew”, a less expensive line of patterns. Designer patterns in Vogue’s “Americana” , “Paris Original” pattern series, later “Attitudes” (1980s) and “Individualist” (1990s) promoted the designs of well established and up and coming designers. In 2007 by McCall Pattern Company acquired the company. Each company, McCall, Butterick, and Vogue continues its own brand name.

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Scope and Content Note

A great majority of the materials in this collection are photocopies.Articles and patterns about or by Butterick or Vogue as well as a few by McCall and generally about the history of clothing styles are prominent. Promotional materials, newsletters, news clippings, poster art and pattern lists make up the bulk of the collection. Dates range from 1860s- 2004.

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Arrangement

The materials are arranged by type and size of the material. The bulk of the collection is housed in oversized boxes.

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Restrictions

Open for research.

Terms governing use and reproduction:Photocopying and scanning of materials is a fee based service available in the repository and is allowed at the discretion of the Archivist when in compliance to the Unit’s policy on copyright and publication.

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Related Material

The Business Records of the Butterick Company are thought to have been transfered to the company’s printing plant in Altoona, PA.

The CoPA collection contains many Butterick, Vogue, and McCalls patterns which are listed in its database.

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Administrative Information

Custodial History

The material was transferred by mail to the Unit directly from Butterick’s New York headquarters.

Preferred Citation

Butterick Research Collection, Mss. Gr. 217, University of Rhode Island Special Collections.

Acquisitions Information

The collection, a portion of its archives,was given by the Butterick Company in 2007 to the Special Collections Unit by the Butterick Co. upon its merger with McCalls Co.

Processing Information

Most of the materials were kept in their original order.They were rehoused.

Finding aid prepared by Gayle Boden. Historical note prepared by Sarina Rodrigues Wyant and Joy Emery

Finding aid encoded by Sarina Rodrigues Wyant on 2009 December 28

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Inventory

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