Pendleton History

A Brief History of the Zion Park Blanket.

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A Guest Post

Today’s post is a guest post from Fred Coldwell, a traveler, collector and lecturer who is the unchallenged expert on Pendleton’s National Park blankets. Please enjoy his informative essay on the origins of the Zion Park blanket, which we reintroduced in a new coloration this year after a long hiatus from the line. All photos of the vintage versions are courtesy Fred Coldwell, taken from his personal collection. 

The introduction

The Zion Park blanket was introduced on September 1, 1926 in six body colors: straw, drab, white, camel hair, rose, and delft blue. Three rows of three character stripes appear at each end. Only one size was produced, 66” x 80”, using pure virgin wool filling on a cotton warp. Felt binding was sewn across both ends, and the Zion Park used the standard Pendleton blanket label for its time.

Here is a stunning example in Delft blue:

The 1926 debut version of the Pendleton Zion National Park blanket.

The colorful character stripes are, from the top down: white, rose, and drab; white, straw, and red; and white, rose and drab. Except for red, Zion Park blankets were available in all these other body colors.

A closer view of the stripes on the 1926 debut of the Pendleton Zion National Park blanket.

The Zion Park used a very thick fleece wool and white felt binding, both visible around its Pendleton copyright 1921 label used from 1921 to 1930:

embroidered label on 1926 version of the Pendleton National Park blanket.

The redesign

In 1929, the Zion Park blanket was redesigned to feature a thunderbird with a Hopi border top and bottom. Seven color combinations were available. Here’s a terra cotta bird on a brown body with a 1921-1930 Pendleton label:

The 1929 version of the Zion Park blanket, a thunderbird on a rust red background.

Back to stripes

The Zion Park disappeared in the 1930s but reappeared postwar with a new design, 5 color bands at each end with three very thin lines of body color at the outer edge of the outer bands. Here’s one in stone with a black center band that emulates a solar eclipse:

The 1940s stripe version of the Pendleton Zion National Park blanket.

The remnants of satin binding appear original to the blanket. The three thin lines of stone body color can barely be seen migrating into the outer straw band:

The corner of the 1940s version shows a blue and gold embroidered Pendleton label.

While retaining its stone body color, the Zion Park soon changed its 5 color bands to lighter pastels popular in the 1950s:

Shot of blanket with Pendleton cardboard tag still attached.

It was identified by its stapled card and wore a new gold label that did not otherwise distinguish it. Both the card and gold label now proclaim the Zion Park was made from 100% virgin wool. The color being given only as Zion National Park suggests the Zion Park came only in this one official color.

1950s Pendleton Zion Park blanket with cardboard tag and white and gold Pendleton label.

The pastel colors became slightly stronger over time, but once the card was removed the gold Pendleton label by itself makes the Zion Park difficult to identify, so one must memorize its color scheme.

1950s Pendleton Zion National Park blanket with satin binding.

In the 1960’s the Zion Park was also available in a small 64” x 43” throw with fringe along each side:

A Pendleton Zion National Park Zion blanket throw with a fringed edge from the 1960s.

The Woolmark logo (lower left) on the throw blanket’s label identifies it as made in around 1965 or later, when Pendleton began using the Woolmark to identify its 100% virgin wool blankets:

A closeup of the Pendleton blue and gold embroidered label on the 1960s Zion National Park throw.

Also in the 1960s overstitched binding replaced the satin. The three thin lines of the body color, which were always present but nearly impossible to see due to the faint colors, now became slightly more visible due to the mildly stronger colors:

A folded shot of the 1960s version, with stitched binding.

2020 release

The Zion Park was discontinued in 1966 and the name remained dormant until 2020. This year, the Zion Park rejoins the National Park blanket family with richer and deeper colors and, finally, its own National Park Blanket label featuring a mountain lion:

The label of the Zion National Park blanket by Pendleton.

The new 2020 Zion Park layout was inspired directly by the 1950s pastel version, but its colors were updated to reflect the landscape of the park itself. The three thin line design feature is now even more visible because of the contrasting brick red body and navy band colors. Why be subtle when you can be bold!

Thank you, Fred! The 2020 version of the Pendleton Zion National Park blanket can be seen here: Zion National Park, by Pendleton

Pendleton label with bald eagle: "Pendleton since 1863 Highest Quality Made in the USA."

 

 

 

 

New Pendleton x Ariat Collaboration Boots for Fall

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Fall News

Image courtesy Ariat, International = woman walking outdoors

Pendleton Woolen Mills and Ariat Boots have collaborated for Fall 14. We’re bringing you a limited-edition capsule collection of Western and English boots done with Ariat leather and technology, and Pendleton signature wool fabrics.

We’re excited to collaborate with Ariat, International, the leading manufacturer of performance equestrian footwear. Ariat pioneered the application of advanced athletic shoe technology into English riding boots, making riding boots as wearable as they are beautiful. This particular capsule collection marries Ariat’s expertise with two iconic Pendleton weaving traditions.

All the Styles

Image courtesy ARIAT, International of Pendleton x Ariat boots

If you ask people in the American West about Pendleton fabrics, they will probably tell you about our Native American-inspired patterns; the boldly colored geometric designs from our Trade blankets, woven in our Northwest mills on huge jacquard looms. The Caldera Pendleton and Meadow Pendleton boot styles celebrate this side of our company’s heritage, pairing tan distressed leather with our Coyote Butte patterned Pendleton wool. Both the knee-high Caldera Pendleton and the Meadow Pendleton bootie are built with Ariat’s signature ATS® technology for superior cushioning and long-lasting support.

Image courtesy ARIAT, International of Pendleton x Ariat boots

The Pendleton x Ariat English style boots take us even further back than the trade blankets, to the days when our founder, Thomas Kay, arrived in Oregon and opened his Salem, Oregon, mill. A former bobbin boy who learned his trade in England and honed it through mill management in America, Thomas Kay wove fine worsteds, tweeds, checks, windowpanes and hounds tooth textiles. That side of our history is celebrated with the English boots, which use walnut leather paired with Pendleton’s Oregon Tweed in a hounds tooth pattern.

Image courtesy ARIAT, International of Pendleton x Ariat boots

The pull-on Shannon Pendleton H2O has a full waterproof construction, and the Piedmont Pendleton is a slip-on clog that features a full-grain leather upper and vamp strap in Pendleton fabric.

Ariat makes real boots for real riders, but you can wear them anywhere you want to. The tall Caldera is available now at pendleton-usa.

Image courtesy pendleton-usa.com of woman in Ariat x pensleton boots

The other three styles will be available in October from Ariat.

Thanks, Ariat, for helping celebrate both sides of the Pendleton weaving heritage; the rugged and the refined.

Fannie Kay Bishop, a True Modern Woman

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Thomas Kay’s Daughter

Fannie Kay Bishop is beloved figure in the history of Pendleton Woolen Mills. She was daughter to Thomas Kay and wife to Charles P. Bishop, with whom she had three sons who would open the first official Pendleton Woolen Mills in Oregon. She was also a progressive thinker who gently chided her son Clarence in 1914, “…for your own happiness I would be glad if you had a loving, capable wife…a woman that would appreciate you and be your equal in every way.”

Fannie Kay was an immigrant who came to America, the land of opportunity, at a very young age. She was born on November 29, 1857, in Shipley, Yorkshire, England, the first of ten children born to Thomas and Ann Kay. She emigrated in 1860, after her father had found work in NJ and before he came west to found the family dynasty of Pendleton Woolen Mills. Fannie characterized herself as a “true tomboy” who spent her childhood climbing trees, stilt-walking, sledding and watching Union soldiers march and drill. Fannie also accompanied her father to the mill, watching him work and learning at his knee as he managed various mills across the country.

She came to work at the old Brownsville, Oregon, mill at age fifteen, after Thomas Kay was hired to resurrect it. She was passionately interested in wool processing and manufacture, questioning her father, observing operations and eavesdropping on her father’s conversations with the mill hands he invited to the family home. “I spent all my spare time in what to me was the fascinating pursuit of learning all about the woolen mill,” she said years later.

In 1874, she began keeping company with Charles P. Bishop, the son of her school’s principal. They married in 1876 and had their first son, Clarence, in 1878. He was followed by Royal in 1881 and Chauncey in 1882. With her guidance and encouragement, these young men opened Pendleton Woolen Mills in 1909.

The correspondence between Fannie Kay Bishop in her sons, preserved nearly in full in the Pendleton archives, is full of loving encouragement, sound advice, and practical business sense. In a letter dated September 10, 1910, she wrote, “The only thing needed for any success is confidence, harmony and patience with one another. Without that there is no use to struggle on as there can be nothing but ultimate failure.”

A Pioneering Presence

One of the more interesting aspects of Fannie Kay Bishop’s history was her political campaign for the state legislature in the early 20th century. Although women were not allowed to vote in national elections until 1920, a few progressive states passed women’s suffrage earlier; Montana in 1914, Washington in 1910 and Oregon in 1912. In 1922, Fannie Kay Bishop threw her hat in the ring with the following campaign position card:

Newspaper feature on Fannie Kay Bishops run for Representative

We apologize for the hard to read text, but it is as follows:

I am respectfully submitting to you my candidacy for nomination as one of the four representatives from Marion County, feeling that I can render public service that you require. My long life in Marion County is an open book, on the pages of which I have endeavored to write achievements worthy of our County and State. Your attention is respectfully called to the pamphlet containing the statements of Republican candidates for details concerning my platform. I will faithfully endeavor, when elected, to voice the expressed desire of my constituents, to advocate legislation for a businesslike consolidation of administrative branches of the State government and for tax reduction, and will favor such measures as comment themselves as being for the public welfare.

Truly yours,

FANNIE KAY BISHOP

Fannie Kay Bishop didn’t win office in Marion County, but she was a pioneer in many ways. As a truly modern woman, her passionate participation in the political process was balanced with her call for “confidence, harmony and patience.” She’s a proud part of the Pendleton legacy.

Made in USA label with eagle for Pendleton