Thomas Stevens

Thomas Stevens (1828–1888) was a 19th-century weaver in Coventry, famous for his innovation of the stevengraph, a woven silk picture.

Biography

In the 19th century the town of Coventry, England, was the centre of a ribbon weaving industry. Thomas Stevens was born in Foleshill, just to the north of Coventry, in 1828 to a relatively poor family. Stevens worked for Pears and Franklin, local ribbon weavers in Coventry, and by 1854 had created his own ribbon firm.

Stevens had considerable experience of experimenting with the Jacquard loom and responded to the local recession by trying to develop new products. He had invented a way of using the programmable loom to weave colourful pictures from silk. in order to stimulate a demand that would keep his workers in employment. Some of these pictures were used for bookmarks, greetings cards and specialised products for the Admiralty.

In 1888 Stevens died following a throat operation in London, and was buried in London Road Cemetery, Coventry.

Legacy By the 1930s, Stevengraphs were considered collectable items, but the hobby was considered eccentric and mainly confined to female collectors. During the Second World War Coventry was attacked by German bombers; on 14 November 1940 the Coventry Blitz occurred, destroying the Stevens factory Prices rose, particularly for unusual or rarer images less popular during the Victorian period.

A large collection of Stevens' work and his pattern book is still held at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, with Stevengraphs also held in collections at the Bodleian Library, the Science Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Trust property Greenway House, near Brixham, Devon.