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Asian
Textileworking ➔ Silk
Identifier:
38188Description:
Pile of raw silk thread, undyed. Accompanying grey notecard explains the hand-manufacturing process by which it was made.;Excellent example of raw material accompanied by the card which explains the process of making silk threads. Identified by Bennet Bronson, Professor of History, University of Illinois Chicago, IL; tel: 312.665.7832;Card reads: "387. SKEIN OF SILK THREAD spun from silk worm cocoons by a converted woman while at the Mission Hospital. Throwing several of the cocoons into a dish of water kept nearly at the boiling point she stirred the contents of the dish with a green twig until from ten to fifteen of the cocoon threads stuck to the ragged end of the stick. Sitting upon a mat placed on the fround in front of the dish and clearing a place upon which to drop the thread she bared her left leg and grasping the silk fibers, entangled in the stick, with her left hand drew them across [sic] the leg at the same time rolling them with her right hand. Thus with one sweep of the hand she made a foot or more of thread and by rapid repetitions produced several yards of spun thread per minute. As fibres [sic] occasionally broke/others [sic] were captured with the twig and added to the thread to keep it of uniform size. Knotty bunches which sometimes appeared were deftly picked off with the fingers of the right hand, or with the teeth, as she came to them.";Accompanying card reads: "387. SKEIN OF SILK THREAD spun from silk worm cocoons by a converted woman while at the Mission Hospital. Throwing several of the cocoons into a dish of water kept nearly at the boiling point she stirred the contents of the dish with a green twig until from ten to fifteen of the cocoon threads stuck to the ragged end of the stick. Sitting upon a mat placed on the fround in front of the dish and clearing a place upon which to drop the thread she bared her left leg and grasping the silk fibers, entangled in the stick, with her left hand drew them across [sic] the leg at the same time rolling them with her right hand. Thus with one sweep of the hand she made a foot or more of thread and by rapid repetitions produced several yards of spun thread per minute. As fibres [sic] occasionally broke/others [sic] were captured with the twig and added to the thread to keep it of uniform size. Knotty bunches which sometimes appeared were deftly picked off with the fingers of the right hand, or with the teeth, as she came to them."Materials:
Spun, Silk, CardDimensions:
1" h 7.7 | 6.5" w 4.2" d; 3.25" hCurrent Location Status:
In StorageSource:
Gift Of Dr. Mary CutlerRelated Entity:
Dr. Mary Cutler (donor)Mary Cutler was the daughter of John and Christina Cutler. In 1853 the couple along with their ten children came from New York State and founded the town of Cutlerville. In 1891, John I. Cutler Jr., built the Cutler mansion, a three-story brick house which in 1910 became the nucleus of the Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services and is now a recognized as an historic site that is part of the Michigan Historical Markers Program.
Mary graduated from University of Michigan Medical School at Ann Arbor, in 1888, worked in Detroit and Ann Arbor, MI, and had a private practice in Pomeroy, OH for several years. While in medical school at the University of Michigan, Mary Cutler was in the first group of student volunteers to serve in the Korea mission field for forty-six years from 1893-1939. She worked primarily as a medical missionary to women and children through the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Church. Early organizers of these medical missions found that Korean women did not want to see male doctors, as a result, female Methodist physicians also took part in the medical mission. Mary was assigned as superintendent for the Women's hospital and dispensary, the Lillian Harris Memorial Hospital in Seoul. Later she helped establish a training school for nurses.
In 1903 she took a furlough (this may possibly be when she returned to West Michigan and when a photograph of her and her daughter Mary Sah was taken, University of Michigan also noted her visit in 1915 to take advanced medical classes) after which she went to Pyongyang for six months to help and care for her colleague Dr. Rosetta Hall who was ill. In 1910 or 1912, Mary was appointed to the Hospital of Extended Grace in Pyongyang. Dr. Cutler is listed among other prominent women missionaries in Korea, such as Lillias Horton, Lulu Frey, Annie Adams Baird, Margo Lee Lewis, and Marjorie Lucy Hanson. She worked closely with Dr. Rosetta Sherwood Hall, a notable American-Canadian physician and educator. A 1918 (KWC 20) article, "Women's Hospital of Extended Grace and Medical Education for Korean Women" was published by Dr. Mary Cutler, outlining her work in the field.
In 1939 Mary retired and returned to Cutlerville. She was a member of the First Methodist Church of Grand Rapids and a charter member of its Woman's Society of Christian Service. She had an exhibit of Korean items at the GRPM that are now part of the Museum's Permanent Collection. In 1944 with failing health, Mary moved to Clark Memorial Home in Grand Rapids. Suffering from a fractured hip, she died at Blodgett Hospital on April 27, 1948 and was buried in the Cutlerville Cemetary.