The origins of natural dyeing are hidden in the mists of prehistory. No doubt early humans observed the staining properties of plants when they plucked fruits or flowers and noted the various colors of rocks and soils. Human bones in prehistoric Neolithic graves have been found powdered with colored mineral pigments, suggesting that these people used the colors of the earth to add decoration to their clothing and bodies.
To these early humans, the extraction and transfer of colors from nature to objects of their choice must have seemed magical. As a result, superstitions evolved concerning the ritualistic procedures whereby the wonders of natural dyeing were accomplished, and certain colors were believed to have magical powers (Knaggs 1992). Even among some twentieth-century cultures, superstition continued to be a part of the dyeing process. On the island of Rotti, in Indonesia, members of the indigenous culture traditionally believed that evil spirits enjoyed dipping their hands into dyepots to deprive the dyes of their effectiveness. Charms constructed from the wood of the lontar tree and hen's feathers were hung above the dyepots to ward off such mischievous evil (Buhler 1948).
Natural Dyeing in Antiquity
Evidence of natural dyeing in antiquity has been discovered in many parts of the world (Lillie 1979). Natural dyed fabrics were commercially produced in China as early as 3000 B.C., according to an ancient Chinese document (Adrosko 1971). Textile fragments dyed with roots from the madder plant (Rubia tinctoria), which produces red, were found at Mohenjo-Daro, an archaeological site in Pakistan dating to around 2500 B.C. Similar fabrics have also been unearthed in Egyptian tombs (Dean 1999). Ancient Hebrew women collected shield lice from the branches of oak trees to produce a red dye, a color source now known as kermes, and the Bible records the use of many other diversely colored fabrics (Sandberg 1994; Wilson 1979).
The ancient Phoenician dye industry, which was located along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea as early as 1500 B.C., is credited with the discovery of several beautiful purple dyes, one of which was known as Tyrean purple. These purple hues were obtained from glandular secretions produced by a number of mollusk species (Knaggs 1992; Sandberg 1989, 1994). Dibromoindigo, the dye chromophore found in these secretions, changes from yellow to red-purple upon exposure to air (Bliss 1981; Wilson 1979). Tyrean purple was extremely expensive to produce because of the complicated vatting process it required and because as many as 12,000 mollusks were needed to produce only 3.5 ounces of dye (Held 1973). As a result of its costliness, Tyrean purple became the color of royalty. Modern archaeological excavations along the eastern Mediterranean coast have turned up huge mounds of old shells, revealing the presence of those ancient dye works.
As early as 2000 B.C., mordants were fortifying natural dyes in India (Held 1973). Pliny the Elder, a Roman chronicler of nature from the first century A.D., described the mordanting process that he observed in Egypt:
After pressing the material, which is white at first, they saturate it, not with colors, but with mordents [sic] that are calculated to absorb color. This done, the cloths, still unchanged in appearance are plunged into a cauldron of boiling dye and are removed the next moment fully colored. It is a singular fact that although the dye in the pan is of one uniform color, the material when taken out of it is of various colors, according to the nature of the mordents that have been respectively applied to it: these colors will never wash out. (Haberly 1957, 159)
Natural Dyeing in Historic Europe
As the Roman army moved northward through central Europe during the first century B.C., they encountered members of the local Celtic population whose bodies had been dyed and tattooed blue using a plant dyestuff known as woad (Isatis tinctoria). This European use of woad, a plant that was indigenous to southeastern Russia and lands around the eastern Mediterranean Sea, suggests that European trade in dyestuffs existed even at this early date (Knaggs 1992).
By the eighth century A.D., European trade in dyestuffs flourished. Fabrics and commercial dyes were transported along established trade routes from Asia and the Middle East westward to ports along the Italian peninsula. From there the commerce moved northward through the Alps to trade fairs. The famous fairs of the Champagne region of France, which were located halfway between Flanders in the north and Italy in the south, served as commercial clearinghouses for all of Europe, and dyes were among the most important products sold. The fairs were a major stimulus to European textile production, and communities devoted to textiles were built near important market towns. Complex systems of craft guilds were developed to regulate the training of apprentices and the production of quality textile merchandise.
Until the sixteenth century, natural dyeing in Europe was highly secretive, and dye recipes were closely guarded. Then in 1548, Gioanventura Rosetti published The Plictho, a reference describing the dye processes and recipes used by dyers working in the cities of Italy. This publication became a standard reference for commercial natural dyers until the end of the seventeenth century. At that time the Academie des Sciences in Paris began organized efforts to advance the science and chemistry of natural dyeing. This resulted in experimental searches for new dyestuffs (Robinson 1969). The discovery of America also contributed to this scientific era in the history of natural dyeing. New World dyestuffs such as logwood (Haematoxylon campechianum), fustic (Chlorophora tinctoria), and cochineal insects (Dactylopius coccus) expanded the range of hues that could be obtained from natural dyes.
Natural Dyeing in North America
The Europeans who settled along the eastern coast of North America during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries brought their knowledge of European dyes and dyeing processes to North America. The settlers preferred to use the dyestuffs with which they were accustomed, and so significant quantities of commercially prepared European dyes were imported into the American colonies. An accounting of "Goods and Produce imported into the several Provinces in North America" in 1770, alone, included 70 tons of imported dye woods (Sheffield 1784, table 4).
The dyestuffs imported into the American colonies were very expensive, having passed through the hands of many middlemen. After the Revolutionary War, Asa Ellis published The Country Dyer's Assistant (1798), the first manual concerning natural dyeing in North America. In it he lamented:
For a great proportion of the ingredients employed in dyes, we depend on Europe to furnish ... As we attempt an independence of their markets, they increase their duties on dyestuffs which we import. Not one cask, of Cochineal, can we obtain from our sister continent, South-America; from thence it must pop through the hands of Spain and England. From England we receive it, at an extravagant price ... Foreign nations receive a large revenue from this country, for the dyestuffs we import. Does it become an independent nation, to be thus dependent on others, for articles, which, perhaps, may abound in our own country? (137-139)
Because of the high cost of commercial dyestuffs, and because many rural early Americans did not have immediate access to trading centers, some settlers planted the seeds of familiar dyestuffs in their gardens to ensure the availability of coloring materials. Woad (Isatis tinctoria) for blue was a popular garden dye plant, although it exhausted the soil and thereby necessitated the constant opening of new tracts of land (Stearns 1964).
European settlers also experimented with the unfamiliar native plants that they discovered within their new environment. They encountered local species related to their European dye plants, such as a North American sumac (Rhus species) similar to the "diar's shumach" of England. They also encountered completely new dye sources. While some individuals shared the results of these discoveries with neighbors, others did not. Reportedly, one colonial housewife in New England formulated a process for obtaining a rare pink color but refused to divulge the source of this dye and took the secret to her grave. That particular hue became known as Wyndym pink, named after the town in which she lived (Harbeson 1938).
European settlers also learned about American dye plants from resident Native Americans, who produced red from bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), green from algae, and yellow from lichens. The poisonous fruit of pokeweed (Phytolacca americana), an indigenous North American herb, was favored by Native Americans as a colorant for baskets (Weigle 1974). The American colonists observed, however, that many of the hues produced by Native Americans quickly faded, suggesting that mordants may not have been used.
Natural dyes remained the only alternative for dyeing textiles until 1856 when an English scientist, William Perkin, successfully created in his laboratory a mauve dye from coal tar (Adrosko 1971). Other human-made dyes soon followed, and by the 1870s synthetic dyes were commercially available to home dyers in the United States (Nast 1981). However, as American pioneers moved westward into largely unpopulated regions of the central frontier, commercial outlets for synthetic dyes were often slow to follow. Therefore, to people residing great distances from commercial centers, natural dyes remained important throughout the nineteenth century (Richards 1992, 1994).
Emeline Crumb, a Kansas pioneer, recalled her family's use of natural dyes for coloring homespun wools and unbleached muslin:
The native plants and barks were used ... Good browns were produced with walnut bark, when properly set ... A good dark slate or grey was secured by walnut bark, set with sumac 'bobs' ... Golden Rod was used for yellows — the tint called 'Nankeen.' Rusted iron — or iron filings — set some colors ... A bolt of strong unbleached muslin, after passing thru the dyes, made quite nifty dresses ... The Indians used many kinds of roots, barks and berries, making lasting colors ... But they were not inclined to impart their secrets to the Pale Face. (Stratton 1981, 67-68)
Just south of Kansas was Indian Territory, later to become the state of Oklahoma. Following passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830, more than thirty different Native American tribes were resettled on this land north of the Texas border. Those that came from the southeastern United States were often accompanied by their African American slaves. After the American Civil War, European Americans also migrated into the territory. All three of these ethnic groups used natural dyes to color both apparel and household fabrics. Ransom Parris, for example, recalled obtaining a red dye from "pacoon roots" (Works Progress Administration 1937, 69: 352). He was probably referring to bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), also known as red puccoon, a popular dye among Cherokees (Hamel and Chiltoskey 1975). Bloodroot grew in the deciduous forests of the eastern part of Indian Territory.
In the semiarid southwestern part of Indian Territory, prairie mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) was a common shrub. Martha Martin, who lived in that region in 1886, recalled how "the mesquite roots taken green and boiled with real strong iron and copper" made "a pretty golden colored dye" (Works Progress Administration 1937, 60: 500).
The bois d'arc tree, or Osage orange (Maclura pomifera), was another popular source of yellow dye among early residents of the southern plains. Minnie Parks, whose uncle worked in a Texas bakery, recalled that "he used to send mother great bundles of flour sacks. Mother made all of our clothes out of them. ... She would use bois d'arc bark to dye the sacks bright yellow for aprons and quilt tops" (Works Progress Administration 1937, 69: 284).
If a pioneer family lived within traveling distance of a trading center, they sometimes purchased commercially prepared natural dyes. John Harrison, an African American, recalled that "indigo was purchased at trading posts and all shades of blue could be made" (Works Progress Administration 1937, 39: 325). On the other hand, Elijah Culberson remembered that his Cherokee family used "wild indigo," probably either blue wild-indigo (Baptisia australis) or yellow wild-indigo (B. tinctoria) (Works Progress Administration 1937, 22: 218).
Sarah Harland, a Choctaw, met her needs for dye by growing indigo in her garden during the American Civil War:
A druggist in Bonham [Texas] gave me some indigo seed ... I planted the seed. When it was just blooming, the old negro man ... cut it down, put it in barrels, and pounded it ... then he said let it rot, so we did and I tell you it beat any ... smell I ever smelled. Then he put it under a press and pressed the juice out, strained it, put it in a boiler and boiled it for two days, from 10 gallons down to one, until it was thick like syrup, then put it in dishes and set it in the sun to dry; it evaporated and became hard. We tried it in water, and to our great joy found it just what we wanted. (Works Progress Administration 1937, 106: 153-154)
The seeds that Sarah received may have been those of Indigofera suffruticosa, a species of indigo that was commercially cultivated in the southeastern United States during the eighteenth century (Adrosko 1971).
Some pioneers combined their natural dyes with tie-dye techniques to produce patterned textiles. Levi Ketcher described his Cherokee grandmother's procedure: "Sometimes you take white [corn] shuck, tie it in places around the hanks [of yarn] and [after dyeing] this leaves white spots in [the] thread" (Works Progress Administration 1937, 50: 438). Mattie Huffman, who lived in Kansas, remembered her aunt's technique:
[She] would gather quite a number of corn shucks, cut them in two cross-wise and sit down with her lap full of them and a quantity of yarn. Then she would begin winding the knitting yarn [around] ... these shucks; about 12 inches on each one, and leaving about as much yarn between each two. When the entire skein was so prepared on the shucks it was then put into the dye. When it was taken out, if the dye was red, for instance, next to the shuck would be the natural white color of the yarn, next to that a pink shade, and ... on the outside it would be red ... They called [this] clouded yarn. (Stratton 1981, 67)
As commerce grew in central portions of the United States, however, reliance upon natural