I’m a firm believer in freedom of information. Maybe it is due to being born into the age of the internet when anything you’d like to know is at your fingertips. In some ways the internet has probably made turned the library into a forgotten resource. I love libraries, especially ones smart enough to keep history in the form of old periodicals and books. When I lived in Ithaca, NY I spent endless hours at Cornell University flipping through actual pages of “Ladies Home Journal” from the early 1900’s into the 1930’s. When I moved back to the California Bay Area I spent more countless hours in front of a microfilm viewer to look at 1920’s “Vogue” magazine.

I was delighted to learn that the largest library; The Library of Congress, offers inter-library loans thanks to the American Library Association. You can fill out a book request and it will be sent to your local library. I browsed their online library catalog and found the best search results by looking up the keyword “knitting” and setting search limits of 1900-1950 (or any years that suit you) and English language items. What results is numerous wonderful knitting magazines and books from our favorite eras. They have holdings of Columbia Yarn pattern books mainly from the Edwardian period as well as Utopia yarns, Bear Brand yarn from 1902-1915 & Priscilla knitting books. Also noteworthy is their holding of “the Hanicrafter” from the late 20’s which have knitting patterns. I also see there also are patterns from Worth.

So far I have had success getting items loaned to be from the LOC. Now, the New York Public Library hasn’t been as easy. They tell me anything in their research library can not be loaned but can be photocopied for a charge. I’ve also submitted “Electronic Data” requests where they are supposed to scan the book but they came back with empty scans! Who would have thought that the government library has been more helpful than local public libraries?

NYPL has holdings of Minerva pattern books from 1933-49 as well as some Edwardian Fleishers books and 1928-1937 issues of Bernat’s Handicrafter. Remember to use the NYPL CATNYP directory to search older titles.

Maybe someone who lives in NY will have better success gaining scans of these books. I’m by no means giving up! Our tax dollars pay to keep these libraries. We should be able to have access to information we technically own.

Los Angeles Public Library has one 1931 Columbia pattern book. If you’re in the area maybe you can review this book. They also are hesitant at this point to loan out this item.

Yale University has a Minerva, Fleisher’s and a Columbia knitting book if you go to this school. I believe they do inter-library loans but for a hefty charge.

University of SouthAmpton has 1930-1939 issues of “Good needlework and knitting magazine”.

Toronto Public Library has 1933-1948 issues of Minerva Style Books as well as 1936-1940 issues of Needlecraft magazine that have both knitting and crochet patterns.

It is hard to come across libraries that still have holdings of vintage pattern books. At one time women burned their bras and said good bye to feminine hobbies. With resurgence in knitting, antiques and crafts these books become a very valuable resource for us. Not only do you get patterns printed exactly how people in the time wanted these knit items to be, you get ideas of color schemes of the era from yarn descriptions, your shown all the latest hair styles as well as seeing women’s life style needs from landscapes in the photographs.

Please keep in mind Section 108 of the Copyright Act provides specific exceptions for libraries and archives in which they may make reproductions without obtaining permission from, or providing compensation to, the copyright holder. Libraries will try to first deny you any reproduction rights due to copyright. (Honestly I think it’s due to laziness on some librarians’ part.) Hold your ground and refer to section 108. As researchers we have a right to gain copies of these old books. Short of sitting in the library with knitting needles, how will these books ever get use if they sit in library archives unread?

“Library user requests for entire works. If certain conditions are met, your library may make one reproduction of an entire book or periodical at the request of either a library user or another library on behalf of a user. The library must first determine after reasonable investigation that a reproduction cannot be obtained at a reasonable price. The reproduction must become the property of the library user. The library must have no reason to believe that the reproduction will be used for purposes other than private study, scholarship and research.”

Stay tuned and soon I will tell you how you can access hundreds and soon to be thousands of vintage patterns online that I will be sharing with you from my personal collection free! With one catch