Uruguay

rif. List3132 — Montevideo Uruguay N.d. Photo album with thirty-six captioned photos measuring 6 ¾ x 9 ¼ inches mounted on heavy cardstock. Album embossed “INDUSTRIA LANERA DEL URUGUAY S.A. / ILDU / MONTEVIDEO URUGUAY”. Photos with fine contrast two missing; slight wear to mounts and album; else Near Fine. Industria Lanera del Uruguay is a Montevideo-based wool manufacturing company that was founded in 1933. Offered here is a photo album likely from the late 1950s to mid-1960s showcasing ILDU’s high-tech factory—an introductory page from the album claims that ILDU had “a policy of yearly replacements” of equipment to keep “abreast of all technological improvements”. The photos which are all captioned document the worsted wool manufacturing process from sorting and scouring to dyeing and weaving; the laboratories that test the product’s moisture level tensile strength and so on; and the luxurious “sample room” where gentlemen examine the finished product while relaxing in leather armchairs. Textiles especially wool made up a large percent of the Uruguayan manufacturing sector before 1960. Though manufacturing was slow to start because of a small population and political instability in the country and because so much of the country’s open space was taken up with ranching there was a massive boom in wool manufacturing in particular between the 1930s and 1950s.1 ILDU was one of the largest worsted wool companies in the ‘30s and is still operational today. Of interest to historians of South America’s manufacturing history. 1 Magdalena Bertino “La industria textil uruguaya 1900–1960” América Latina en la historia económica 31 June 2009: 99–126. unknown books