Jacquard

1880 · réf. 24051 — 1880. Photograph archive documenting women textile workers at handlooms and factory machinery alongside the Jacquard loom an important precursor to modern computing. Jacquard's punched-card mechanism inspired Charles Babbage's proposed Analytical Engine whose operations Ada Lovelace likened to weaving in 1843. Jacquard system established a method of controlling machinery through encoded instructions a principle subsequently adopted in early computer design. The archive documents the connection between women's industrial history with the technological foundations of modern computing. Textile manufacturing was also among the earliest major industrial employers of women. Photo archive of 7 items comprising four silver gelatin photographs one 1914 Keystone View Company stereoview one real photo postcard and one color advertising card various sizes ranging from 4 x 2 inches to 7.5 x 10 inches circa 1880s-1920s. A large photograph mounted on card stock shows a woman operating a wooden loom beside a curtained window; another depicts a seated weaver at a substantial timber-framed loom. Other photographs show a young worker before ranks of yarn bobbins and three women beside industrial textile machinery. The stereoview depicts a Jacquard loom weaving brocade in South Manchester Connecticut its punched-card apparatus visible overhead. The postcard depicts Japanese weaving while an 1881-copyright trade card portrays Jacquard and his invention. One photograph bears a handwritten Cyrillic inscription dated February 25 1928. Scattered fading spotting abrasions and mount wear particularly to the largest print which shows chipped card stock. Overall good condition. unknown