Nancy Cabot and the Chicago Tribune
The Nancy Cabot / Chicago Tribune quilt patterns are the least understood of all the commercial patterns created during the 1930s. Their long and complicated story is revealed on the Peerless Fashion Service page on this site along with other related bylines.
The confusion has been created by the same engravings with the same pattern names found in different ad formats in other periodicals during the 1930s decade continuing to the end of their story in 1971-1972 either without a byline or with a new byline. The missing links to understanding the evolution of this collection have been the identity of the pattern company that distributed the patterns outside the area served by the Chicago Tribune and the newspaper syndicates involved. The story began to unravel through clues found in Frank Luther Mott's History of American Magazines in which he occasionally refers to an annual syndicate directory published by Editor & Publisher. This directory was issued as a supplement on varying dates during the summer each year and searching through its pages revealed new information about many of the syndicated commercial needlework and dress patterns so familiar to collectors and historians today.
The Nancy Cabot quilt patterns were published in many iterations during the 23 years following their creation in 1933. The individual pages on this site for Carol Aimes, Carol Curtis, Georgette, Grandmother's, Martha Madison, Mary Ann, Mayfair, and Progressive Farmer will clarify much of the confusion experienced by past collectors and historians.
Nancy Cabot, January 22, 1933, through July 31 , 1938
The Nancy Cabot / Chicago Tribune quilt patterns have been republished by many sources since 1933 so I will not repeat them here beyond a few examples for comparison to the ads after 1938. The ads were published in the daily Tribune -- single column ads Monday through Saturday, and large two column ads on Sunday.
Nancy Cabot patterns, August 1, 1938 through 1971-1972
Beginning August 1, 1938, the mailing address for the Nancy Cabot quilt patterns changed from the Chicago Tribune offices in Chicago to Peerless Fashion Service in New York City with numerous changes incorporated into the ads: The patterns were assigned pattern numbers for the first time; two bylines were added to Nancy Cabot's -- Ellen Bruce and Jean Macdonald (see examples below); embroidery was added in addition to quilt designs, including with the Nancy Cabot byline; and an illustrator's name, Margot, is seen on several illustrations in the ads. This same signature is also seen with clothing ads in Sears catalogs during this period.
Martha Madison was the last byline for the quilt patterns originally published as Nancy Cabot. They continued until 1971-1972 when General Features discontinued patterns of all types thus ending the distribution of the Nancy Cabot quilt designs originated by the Chicago Tribune and published from January 22, 1933, through July 31, 1938.
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I encountered a surprise one day as I searched Newspapers.com for quilt related information. Iola, Kansas, is a short distance east of me and I wondered why I hadn't encountered Nancy Cabot material as I searched for quilt related ephemera over the years. I recently went back to Newspapers.com for more information and quickly discovered that "Nancy Cabot" should have read "Mrs. Anne Cabot" in the Iola newspaper. This error is all the more surprising since these two bylines were distributed by two entirely different syndicates and had no relationship in 1941 or at anytime in the future.
