Children at Play (Furnishing Fabric) 1886 - 1890

This furnishing fabric, titled *Children at Play*, was made by the Merrimack Manufacturing Company. It shows how industrial processes can take hold even in ostensibly decorative patterns. The cotton textile has been roller printed, a mechanized technique developed in the late 18th century. This allowed for the inexpensive production of colorful, patterned cloth, and helped drive the expansion of the textile industry. The fabric is not a unique work of art but rather the output of a factory. The pattern here is based on a grid of alternating diamond and triangular shapes, with scenes of children and pastoral landscapes, interspersed with geometric ornamentation. The rotary printing method ensures that this pattern could be repeated endlessly, yard after yard. This was a world of mass production and consumption, a world remade by industry. Understanding this piece means appreciating the scale of production involved, and the social context of its making. It invites us to see beyond the image, and appreciate the full implications of design within industrial capitalism.