Comments on: A Child’s-Eye View of the Mormon Silk Experiment

By: queuno

queuno — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:51:59 +0000

Thanks, Maude. I didn’t know about the dress on display (or maybe I just forgot all about it). I know that there’s also a monument in a cemetery. We’ll definitely need to make a trip up to Ogden on our next sojourn up to Utah to see the cemetery monument and the dress on display. And I’ll have to go purchase the lesson on Louisa from the DUP museum.

My grandmother has sent my daughter a packet of info on Louisa. When I get time, I’ll convert it to electronic form. (I just pulled it out and there’s a lot here, and my scanner is broken. Oh, and I’m supposed to be working on my dissertation this week, since I’ve taken a week off from work.)

Louisa was also a survivor of the Saluda riverboat explosion on the Mississippi River, so there’s a lot of intersecting history, and looking through this packet, there’s a lot of that information too.

(My email is queuno@gmail.com.)

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:57:24 +0000

Will do!

By: Maude Norman

Maude Norman — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:54:46 +0000

I’m back home and looked up Louisa S. Harris in the DUP lesson for April. There is about a page and a half about her. (The lesson booklet can be purchased for $1.75 at the Pioneer Memorial Museum in Salt Lake City) Very interesting! A black silk dress made by Louisa from local silk is displayed in the Pioneer Museum in Ogden located west of the LDS Temple. I don’t know if “queuno” will read this since the original comment was back in February. Could you please forward this to “queuno”?

By: Maude Norman

Maude Norman — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 01:24:33 +0000

I have searched the net for hours trying to find an account of the gift of the black silk dress. I did find in Anthony’s biography that in public she always wore either black silk or black satin dresses, but often with a red shawl. I was also surprised to find that the silk industry in Utah continued until 1905 when the Utah State Legislature stopped funding for the Utah Silk Association. A paperback of Project Mulberry is waiting for me when I get home thanks to Amazon.com. I highly recommend it for young people and it was interesting to me as a “grandma” as well.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:02:27 +0000

Completely unexpected, Maude, thanks! I searched and found Project Mulberry online (the reference to the church is on page 188). I haven't read it yet, but I will.

By: Maude Norman

Maude Norman — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:44:35 +0000

The lesson for DUP in April is on the Ogden Pioneer Museum and has quite a bit about the silk industry in Ogden. I had no idea sericulture was done so far north. I thought it would all be in southern Utah because of the climate there. Last week I came to Florida to visit my daughter and her family. Eight year old Allison told me she was getting some silkworm eggs in the mail and she had heard an audio book “Project Mulberry” which mentioned a lady in Utah and a black silk dress. The author mentioned the black silk dress that was given to Susan B. Anthony by Mormon women and mentioned the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints by name. What a coincidence! If it hadn’t been for “Project Mulberry” I probably wouldn’t have known about Susan B. Anthony’s black silk dress.

By: Ben H

Ben H — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 02:28:34 +0000

Delightful! It sounds like my aunt writing about last summer’s adventure! It also reminds me of some of my favorite memories of Provo, picking mulberries barefoot with some friends.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:52:22 +0000

Glad you enjoyed it, Peggy — thanks for commenting.

By: Peggy Wheelwright Parry

Peggy Wheelwright Parry — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:54:44 +0000

How interesting to read this when I have been working on a presentation for our DUP Camp. There is a stone monument in our SLC neighborhood which was carved by Avard Fairbanks and is dedicated to the early Utah silk industry. It is DUP marker #73 and was erected July 13, 1941. There were 5 acres of mulberry trees in this area and I remember the messy berries of one across the street from our home. I also had some silkworm cocoons as a child – a school project, I suppose.
Thanks for this insight from a child.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:55:13 +0000

That should give some fashion designer an idea (and the rest of us nightmares) — feed the leaves to silkworms, spin the resulting silk, and make “naturally” glow-in-the-dark clothing.