Spring Break
URI textiles professor collects cloth-covered books of whaling era
Bridgette Blight
Issue date: 10/9/08 Section: News
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As a child, she sewed and taught herself to knit, savoring the feel of the fabrics. She also enjoyed history. These interests led her to Honolulu, Hawaii, and the Textile Society of America's 11th biennial conference.
Jerome also had the opportunity to continue her research in the warm Hawaiian sun. She was one of five finalists out of more than 100 applicants for the society's Founding President's Award.
Two members of the textiles, merchandising and design faculty, professor Margaret Ordoñez and instructor Abby Lillethun, also presented at the conference.
Jerome's research is titled "Trade Cloth on American Whaleships, 1820-1870." The project began in 2001, when she began her graduate studies at URI.
When she started working on her master's degree, Jerome was still occasionally working at Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Conn., home to the Charles W. Morgan, which, according to the National Park Service, is the only wooden whaling ship from the 1800s still in existence.
Jerome's thesis topic came to her during work. She realized that she had read many references to trade cloth, the pieces of cotton that whalers would use as currency during their travels. However, there weren't many descriptions of the actual cloth.
This intrigued Jerome, and after receiving some encouragement from a colleague at Mystic Seaport, she decided to research trade cloth.
"I thought I would look through sailors' journals, diaries and account books to find fabric on whaling vessels as a trade commodity," Jerome said.
However, her thesis changed after her second or third visit to the New Bedford Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Mass., where she was shown a fabric-covered book in the museum's vault.
"No one described the fabric" covering the books, Jerome said.
Her experience in New Bedford sparked her interest in finding cloth-covered books from the heydays of whaling in New England. She went to the Nantucket Whaling Museum and looked through their storage, and found 22 cloth-covered books.
"The books were covered in printed cotton and damask," she said.
Jerome said her discovery of these fabric-covered books leads her to believe that there is more fabric to find from this period of time. Her research thus far has focused on 1820 to 1870, when whaling was very popular in New England. While in Hawaii, she was able to tour some old settlements of the first New Englanders to come to Hawaii, primarily as missionaries.
