Tartan and weaving monographs

[David Thorpe]

I ran across two monographs from the late 1940's on tartans and weaving in the digitized collection of the University of Arizona which may be of interest to some.

The first is titled "The Sett and Weaving of Tartans". The opening background remarks contain several inaccuracies about the origin and development of tartans, but I found it to be interesting nonetheless.

The second titled "Scotch Tartan Setts" contains thread counts and instructions for weaving 132 different "traditional clan tartans".

[ScotFree]

Extremely interesting. Thank you for the links. I enjoyed reading these monographs.

[figheadair]

The second one is interesting. It's more like someone's dissertation. I wonder who Harriett C. Douglas was and what makes Nancy M. McKenna think that by digitalizing the data that she can copyright it? She can only copyright the format but the source material would still belong to the original author or her descendents.

I agree about the inaccuracies in the opening remarks. The setts themselves also contain a number of errors that suggest that the author copied the counts from an earlier work. For example, the setting for Gow specifies Black for the usual Blue which was a common error during that period caused by misinterpreting poor printing of images in some earlier publications, commonly those in the mid-1800s such as Grant's work.

Douglas' method of breaking down the setts into blocks indicates that she was a weaver of other textiles that had come to tartan later. This method is illogical and unnecessary for tartan and leads to errors in weaving.

[usonian]

When I was learning to weave, my University's library had a copy of Harriett Douglas' monograph and I used it to weave my first tartan. I assumed for many years that designating setts in terms of blocks was normal.

I believe Douglas was her maiden name - she wrote a good many books on various weaving-related subjects as 'Harriet Douglas Tidball'.

[creagdhubh]

Very interesting, David. Thank you for sharing.

Cheers,

[figheadair]

When I was learning to weave, my University's library had a copy of Harriett Douglas' monograph and I used it to weave my first tartan. I assumed for many years that designating setts in terms of blocks was normal.

No, as I presume you've now discovered. It's a technique that, I think, belongs to the overshot type of decorated weave. It's completely unnecessary for tartan.

I believe Douglas was her maiden name - she wrote a good many books on various weaving-related subjects as 'Harriet Douglas Tidball'.

Ah, I know of her by her maiden name - thanks.