Shelton Looms Records

The Blumenthal family was involved in the importing of small wares and notions in New York City (with business connections in Germany) for a number of years. I[saac] and A[ugust] Blumenthal was founded in 1854 and changed its name to A[ugust] & S[igmund] Blumenthal in 1878. Sidney Blumenthal (1863-1948) joined his father, August and his uncle Sigmund as a partner in the latter firm in 1882. In 1887, A. and S. Blumenthal abandoned the importing business and established a silk ribbon factory on W. 30th and later on W. 89th St. in Manhattan. Four years later, a German pile fabric manufacturer, Johannes Girmes, encouraged the Blumenthals to add pile fabrics, particularly velvets, to their line which soon became their dominant products.

Needing space for expansion, the company purchased a tract of land in Shelton, CT in 1897. The firm of A. and S. Blumenthal was dissolved two years later, on July 1, 1899, and the firm of Sidney Blumenthal & Co., Inc. was founded with Johannes Girmes as its first president and Sidney Blumenthal as its treasurer and guiding hand. Sidney Blumenthal became president in 1912 and chairman of the board in 1934. H.H. Schell succeeded him as president and general manager. Son, Andre, eventually became president and then chairman in the 1950s.

The company expanded at Shelton and five new divisions were also created. In 1924, the Uncasville (CT) Division was added; in 1930, the Caromount Division in Rocky Mount, NC; in 1941, the Wilson Division in Wilson, NC; and two spinning mills divisions in Woonsocket and Valley Falls, RI in the mid to late 1940s. (The 1932 Davison's Textile Blue Book also lists the Saltex Looms, Inc. in Bridgeport, CT (woolen mill) and a silk mill, the South River Spinning Co., in South River, NJ) Company headquarters was in New York City with sales offices in Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

The company made a wide range of products under the trade name, "Shelton Looms," notably pile fabrics for upholstery furnishings used in the home, automobiles, trains, and planes, and fur fabrics and velvets and velours for ladies' garments, toys, drapery fabric, and novelty items. However, the company's product line from the very beginning also included a wide range of other goods including dress goods (cotton/mohair, taffetas), worsted goods for men's wear (serges) and pile fabrics in blends using rayon, mohair and cotton. The company was proud of the versatility of its looms. In a letter entitled "Some Family and Company History," dated December 21 1938, Sidney Blumenthal boasts that "we were able to produce all-silk, all-wool and all-cotton cloths, such as corduroys, besides the pile fabrics..."

The mills at Shelton, CT were sold to B.F. Goodrich in 1953. Most were destroyed by arson in 1975. Blumenthal & Co. consolidated operations in the South and the company was eventually sold to Burlington Industries later in the 1950s.

Sidney Blumenthal, was born in New York City in 1863, the eldest of eight children of August and Bertha Sussholz Blumenthal. His father, August, had emigrated to the U.S. from Germany in 1854. Sidney was educated at the Friends' Seminary in New York City, and in Frankfurt, Germany when the family was abroad for six years on business. He finished his education in the United States at the Packard Commercial School. He was sixteen when he began working at the family business as a stock clerk and messenger boy. In 1903 Sidney married Lucy Picard, daughter of Henri Picard and Hortense Bernheim of France, and had three children: Andre, Doris, and Yvonne.

Blumenthal was a member of the Advertising Club of New York, the New York State Chamber of Commerce, and the National Republican Club. He was a member of the Society for Ethical Culture and was active on various museum boards, including the Museum of Modern Art, the American Museum of Natural History, the New York Zoological Society, and the New York Botanical Garde