From Stroud to Strouds: The Hidden History of a British Fur Trade Textile

Beavers and Sheep: Visual Appearance and Identity in Nineteenth-Century Algonquian-Anglo Relations

“…During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a major impetus for the French and English to visit the Great Lakes of North America was to gain access to beaver fur with which to manufacture hats. Analyses of fur trade records from this period show that woollen broadcloth soon became the predominant item Native consumers sought in return, and continued to trade for until the demise of the fur trade mid-nineteenth century (Anderson 1994;Axtell 1992, 145;Kidd 1961;White 1987, 170-171;White 1991, 120;Willmott 2005). These two principal commodities of the fur trade, beaver pelts and woollen cloth, were both used for clothing.…”

Review of periodical literature published in 2005

“…Popular views of North American Indian trading goods depict axes, knives, and guns, but Willmott argues that the most important of goods traded among Native Americans were woollen ‘strouds’ produced by Gloucestershire and Yorkshire manufacturers. The widespread use of strouds in Native American dress, claims Willmott, is evident from published contemporary works, surviving items of Indian dress, and trade inventories from the 1750s to the 1820s. Strouds were one of the most valuable items carried by fur traders and were probably the most important woollen textile in the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes Native American markets in the second half of the eighteenth century.…”

Paleoproteomics Reveals the Species Sources of Ancient Hair Textiles and Supports Historicity of Wool Manufacture in the Bronze Age Along the Silk Road

“…Thus, studying animal hair relics is the key to understanding the history of textiles, not only to know about the development and dissemination of hair textiles 14 but also to address issues regarding the technology, 12 production economics, aesthetics, 15 religion and cultural exchange between ethnic groups. [16][17][18][19][20] In addition to wool, there are various animal hairs that can be textile materials, such as the hairs of foxes, hares, 21 raccoon dogs, minks, 22 and coypus. 23 Some hairs are also used directly with the skins, which are well known as furs.…”