Smithonian Curator's Book on the History of the Sewing Machine
 

Here is a link to a very informative book on the history of the sewing machine.

That may sound boring, but it is an invaluable reference for anyone who is interested in or collecting Vintage and Antique sewing machines.

I verified with Smithsonian personnel that it is out of copyright and in the public domain, so it can be redistributed publicly. I would have posted it here, as she suggested (the lady I spoke with from the Smithsonian), but it is too big, per limits imposed by this forum. This link will be changing, as she indicated that they would now be eventually making it available for download on their new digital library location (http://library.si.edu/digital-library/book) where it will be available in pdf, ebook and other formats.

Until then, feel free to download it or view it here, compliments of the Smithsonian:

The Sewing Machine - Its Invention and Development (by Grace Rogers Cooper)
Second Edition - 1976

http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollect...1976sewing.pdf

Hope this helps someone else out there!

BTW - The author of this book had been the Smithsonian's curator over all things textile-related for years and years.

Very interesting! It's a lot of pages though so not sure about printing them off which is really how I like to read things like this.

You could bring the pdf on a memorystick to FedEx/Kinko's (or some such place), and have them print and bind it for you.

I saved a copy of the pdf. I have some friends I'll share it with. Thank you for posting/sharing this with us.

What a wonderful resource - many thanks for posting the link!

Downloading it now for a little light reading.
Thanks!
Rodney

Really interesting. Can't say I read every single word but did look at all the pages and pictures. I've downloaded it for future reference just on the off chance I come across one of those rare treasures. Thanks for posting.

I came across another old sewing machine book (free for download on the Internet Archive) at https://archive.org/details/cu31924089615995. It's simply called Sewing Machines by Rosamund Cook. It's very informative and well-illustrated, explaining how the different types of machines work.