The TRC collection includes a small number of cloths and garments made of gingham cloth. When talking about gingham, some people conjure up images of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz or perhaps typical ‘country’ style cloth associated with both Europeans and Americans. There are others who talk about the gingham kit of Manchester United (2012-2013). By the way, not all United fans were impressed: "Is it a table cloth?" In Holland it is often called Brabants Bont and often associated with table cloths and tea towels. Personally I think of English school uniforms and, in particular, summer dress versions from my youth.
But what exactly is gingham?
Classic 20th century gingham is generally defined as being an even, tabby-weave material in cotton with woven checks that are of an equal size. These checks are normally produced using dyed yarns in only two colours, white with red, blue, green, yellow, purple, black, etc. Some writers also insist that the cloth has to be identical on both sides.
But the story of gingham is more complicated than the above definition indicates. It would appear, for example, that the originally gingham was not necessarily made of cotton, nor was it checked. This quintessential American and European cloth was not even Western in origin.
The word gingham derives from the Malay word genggang, meaning a striped or checked material, probably in either silk or cotton. Via European companies such as the Dutch Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie and the British East India Company, this type of cloth was brought to Europe and adapted to local traditions. Many early versions of European gingham were striped, but made of linen.
From the 18th century striped and checked versions of gingham were being produced in various European countries, and it was given various names, such as Vichy in France, after the own with the same name. By the end of the 18th century the city of Manchester in northern England became known for the production of checked, cotton gingham material. By the same time, the weaving and use of gingham had crossed the Atlantic and became a popular form that continues to be made to the present day in America.
By the 19th century both linen and cotton forms of checked gingham were being produced in Britain. In the official jury report on the Great Exhibition of 1851 there is a description of some of the different types of gingham, and related cloths, which were on display. More specifically in 'Appendix 1A, section F: Coloured woven cotton', it states:
Gingham
- Common
- Light grounds, assorted, plain
- Dark ground, assorted, plain
- Earlston Gingham
- Power-loom Seersuckers and Checks
- Turkey-red Grounds
- Blue and Black heavy Checks
- Coloured Diapers
- Crossover Stripes
- Jean Stripes
- Derries
- Hungarians
- Umbrella Ginghams
(Anon, 1851. Reports by the Juries on the Thirty Classes into which the Exhibition was Divided, London: The Royal Commission, William Clowes & Sons, Appendix A1, Section F, p. xiii).
In some cases some of the names in the above list refer to the place where the cloth was made (Earlston in western Scotland, Derry in northern Ireland), the type of weave and loom (seersucker, power loom), appearance (crossover stripes, muslin grounds, blue or black checks), and cloth (light or heavy weight), or how it was used (umbrella). On other occasions it is not clear, what exactly was a Jean Stripes gingham or a Hungarian gingham?
Extended versions of the Juries list given above were used in a variety of other publications over the next few decades, such as The Dictionary of Needlework by Sophia Caulfeild and Blanche Saward (2nd edition, London: L. Upcott Gill; 1887). It was noted by the two authors that gingham was:
“A thin chequered cloth, made of linen, the threads being dyed in the yarn, and measuring 32 inches in width. It was imported from India, and is extensively manufactured in England, and employed for dresses….. Gingham handkerchiefs, which are made of linen or cotton, much used in the North of England as market handkerchiefs, for tying bundles, and carried on the end of a stick over the shoulder. When recently re-introduced as a fashionable dress material, Gingham was given a new designation, and is now known by the unsuitable name of Zephyr. A superior kind is made of linen only, the other sort being made of cotton” (Caulfeild and Saward 1887, p. 223).
There is also a type of even checked cloth in two colours that has small floating threads, another form that is made using a twill weave (2/2 twill) rather than a tabby weave, as well as a more complex twill form that includes repeating diamond patterns on a minute scale. There is also a group of ginghams that have extra motifs woven into them using supplementary wefts. All of these types of cloth can be called gingham, if the wider 19th century definition is used, rather than the more narrow late 20th century version.
for more details press here]]. Printed ginghams are still being produced in the early 21st century.
Since at least the 1920’s there have been printed versions of this type of cloth. An example of this is the white and pink material produced for a US flour company called the Gingham Girl. This material was to start a movement, namely the printed cotton bags for flour and feed that was an important source of cloth for many American households from the 1930’s to the 1960’s [[As with so many things, once you start digging a little deeper, many textile stories become more complicated, and indeed more interesting!
Gillian Vogelsang, Director TRC, 10 April 2020.