History

The Philadelphia Museum and School of Industrial Art was chartered in 1876 to provide “instruction in Drawing, Painting, Modeling, Designing, etc.”  The goal was to help in the “development of the Art Industries of the State.”

 

A school was added to the curriculum in 1884 to provide training for those entering the textile trade.  Among its departments were the following: Fabric Structure and design; Cotton, wool, worsted, and silk; Warp preparation and weaving, Color harmony and figured design, Chemistry, dyeing, and printing, Hosiery knitting; and Finishing.  This became the first textile school in the United States, freeing the American textile industry from dependence on European models and expertise.

 

Philadelphia Textile School provided both day and evening classes.  Some students completed the three-year course of study; others focused on one department.   My count of the 1948 enrollment shows only 11 females among 400 students.  The Delta Kappa Phi fraternity was founded in 1899, with the Phi Psi Fraternity added in 1903 and the Sigma Phi Tau (for Jewish students) in 1917.  In 1943 the female students organized the Kappa Sigma Phi sorority.  In addition, a Warp and Woof society was established in 1893 and a Crowfoot Society in 1925.

 

In 1941 Philadelphia Textile School underwent a name change to Philadelphia Textile Institute and was licensed to award bachelor’s degrees.  The 1948 Analysis shows that approximately seventy percent of graduates that year were pursuing degrees or diplomas in “Textiles,” the rest in “Chemistry, Dyeing & Printing.”  In addition to the yearbook, students published a student newspaper The Textile Engineer, a merger of two earlier publications, The Whiproll and The Spinneret.

 

In 1991 after Philadelphia Textile had added a School of Architecture, the school received university status and a name change to Philadelphia University.  Then in 2017, it merged with Jefferson University and continues today under the name Jefferson University.