1864

Columbia's Sewing-Machine. Punch, Volume 47, October 1, 1864, p. 137

A weary Columbia ponders the difficulty of stitching back together a map of the United States torn into Northern and Southern pieces in this cartoon that recalls an earlier variation on the theme [cf. September 28, 1861]. Mrs. Britannia, appearing in the guise of an older female relative, smugly counsels the younger woman on the difficulty of her daunting task.

The bodice of Columbia's dress is covered with stars, while the hem of her skirt displays the stripes of the national flag. She rests her right elbow on a treadle sewing machine, one of the marvels of Yankee technology. Lockstitch sewing machines of the Civil War era combined features developed by Elias Howe and Isaac M. Singer, and from 1856 were manufactured under a patent combine that brought the inventors enormous wealth. The speed and accuracy of these machines, along with the development of standardized men's pattern sizes, helped Northern clothing factories to produce the hundreds of thousands of uniforms needed by the Union army.