Variation 3, "Bolling Crest " series, Sussex Print Works, 1915

Sussex Print Works, 1915. Silk dress goods printed in black on white with a variation (S-222) of an "ant and swallow" design taken from the Bolling family crest in England, in honor of the marriage of President Woodrow Wilson and Edith Bolling Galt in December 1915. This variation has a pattern of checks in black on white, with black ants in the white squares and white birds in the black squares. The use of strict black and white reflects the fact that color dyes were scarce due to the blockade of Germany by British ships during WWI. German firms were the primary holders of dye and colorant patents, , and the blockade created a critical shortage of dyestuffs in the still-neutral United States in 1915-1916. When the US entered the war in 1917, on the British side, the German dye patents were seized and turned over to American manufacturers.

Currently not on view