'It was in the water': Chicago's leather industry, 1886-1917
Date
2019
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Tanning is the process by which animal hides and skins are chemically changed into leather. The hides and skins used to make leather throughout most of history have been by-products of our food industry. Leather objects that fill the historic collections of museums today—such as upholstered furniture, fire buckets, bellows, gloves, shoes, pocketbooks, and baseball gloves—once began as hides and skins in butcher shops and slaughterhouses, were then tanned into leather through ‘recipes’ created by tanners, were later crafted into functional and decorative objects by the hands of tradespeople, and were finally utilized in the daily lives of consumers. This thesis explores the industrial and material history of Chicago’s leather industry between 1886 and 1917 for the purpose of better understanding how leather objects materialize from hides and skins to finished consumer products. For this to be achieved, this work first examines one of the most overlooked but crucial materials in the tanning process, water. The pages thereafter illuminate the lives and work of three Chicagoans who lived different experiences in the city’s leather industry, yet all contributed to the material, cultural, and legacy of the animal by-product in Chicago. The vignettes highlight the journey of leather objects through the industry, from tanning with W.N. Eisendrath after the dissolution of his partnership in 1886, to glovemaking and labor relations with Agnes Nestor around 1900, and to both tanning and producing finished goods with Isidore Horween until 1917. Chicago’s leather industry represents an archetypal case study for what was similarly occurring in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. The industries differed in tanners, recipes, and the physical characteristics of leather, but the structure of the industry, flow of material, and tanning technology remained remarkably similar.