The Oregon Custom Weavers Guild Research Notebook was likely an outgrowth of the work business partners, and Oregon State College researchers, Jesses Harmond and Joan Patterson.The notebook was compiled by Guild member Jesse Harmond. His residence in Corvallis is listed in the notebook as the main guild office.
In 1952, Jesse Harmond and Joan Patterson collaborated on a business venture, Oregon Custom Weavers, to produce, market, and promote home furnishing fabrics (e.g. draperies, upholstery, table linens) made from Oregon fiber flax. The linen yarns used in the patterns designed by Patterson were produced by the Oregon Flax Textile Company of Salem, Oregon and the fabric itself was woven by the Oregon Worsted Company of Portland, Oregon. In an effort to promote their product – and, by extension, the Oregon flax and linen industry – Patterson’s textiles were shown at the Silkar Studios in New York City in 1950. Press in attendance at the preview included Good Housekeeping, House and Garden, Handweaver and Craftsman, Modern Bride, and the New York Times. As a result of the showing, the fabrics were offered for sale through Silkar Studios, and the Jack Valentine outlet; in 1955, one of their more finely-woven drapery fabrics retailed for $20 per yard. The Chrysler Corporation placed a tentative order of 100,000 yards of fabric per car model; lack of sufficient credit rating on Oregon Custom Weaver’s part, however, caused the order to fall through.
Oregon’s inability at the time to control fiber flax prices within her own operations, paired with the relatively inexpensive fibers imported and used by eastern manufactures, meant that Oregon’s woven linen couldn’t compete on the open market, and manufacturing ultimately ceased. Oregon Custom Weavers was able to sell the remainder of Patterson’s previously manufactured fabric and weaving yarns out of Harmond’s home, at Russell’s Department Store in Eugene, Oregon, and at the Ceramic Studio in Portland. Weaving yarns continued to be manufactured by the Oregon Flax Spinning Company of Canby, Oregon, the only spinning mill in Oregon to work with flax.
Jesse Edward Harmond was born in Columbus, Mississippi on December 10, 1906. From 1927 to 1932, he attended Mississippi State University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. In 1939, Harmond began work with the United States Department of Agriculture as an Agricultural Engineer. Harmond came to Oregon State College in 1945 to serve as the head of Small Seed Harvesting and Processing Investigations, funded jointly by the Agricultural Engineering Research Division of the USDA and OSC. Harmond’s research and subsequent publications seem primarily to have focused on the mechanization of agricultural processes. Research topics included the efficacy of fluid conveying when processing seeds, using vibration in the separating of seeds, and seed cleaning by electrostatic separation. Harmond developed new fiber flax processing machines that drastically cut processing time at all stages of the process – from harvesting to drying to hand-working. In 1963, Harmond even researched the introduction of “electronic computers for the precise programming of [seed processing] machines, and the use of radioactive tracers for more effective blending of seed.” All these efforts cut the cost of labor and reduced processing times, further increasing the economic feasibility of fiber flax production in Oregon. Jesse Harmond retired in November 1969.
Joan Patterson was born April 25, 1907 in Baker, Oregon. She attended the University of Oregon from 1925 to 1931, graduating with a Bachelor of Architecture in interior design; in 1950, she completed a Master of Fine Arts degree at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Patterson worked for a year as a Research Assistant in Art Appreciation Teaching immediately after graduating from the University of Oregon, and in 1935 worked briefly as Assistant Decorator for the Meier and Frank Company. Hired by OSC in 1936 as a statewide Extension Service Instructor in home furnishings, Patterson later transferred to a resident teaching position in OSC’s School of Home Economics, where her teaching duties primarily focused on textiles design, home furnishing and interiors. By 1951 she’d been promoted to the rank of full professor. Patterson’s research focused largely on the use of Oregon-grown flax in weaving linen and other home furnishing fabrics. Fabrics woven by Professor Patterson were exhibited widely in the west, and in 1948 won first place in a national competition held by Moss-rose Manufacturing Company for a Jacquard loomed fabric. Joan Patterson retired from OSU in June of 1969.
The following resource was used to prepare this biographical note: Tobin, Louise Agnes. A History and Analysis of the Oregon Linen Industry. MS Thesis. Oregon State University, 1959. Web. 8 Jan. 2019.
Author: Rachel Lilley
