About CoPA
"Saving America's Treasures" (1980s-2018)
Joy Spanabel Emery
The Commercial Pattern Archive database, CoPA-Online, is the brainchild of Professor Emeritus Joy Spanabel Emery (1936-2018), founding curator of the Commercial Pattern Archive at the University of Rhode Island. It provides a unique tool for researchers and designers to recreate or date clothing from 1847 to present. Collections from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom are represented in the database, which functions like a union catalog of pattern collections. While the database does not contain fully digitized patterns, it does provides users with important research metadata on vintage and historical patterns, such as year of publication, listed measurements, and images of the pattern envelopes. Beginning in the 1990s, the CoPA Database was offered to users on CD-ROM. In 2009, it transitioned to an online subscription database.
The true cornerstone of CoPA is the Betty Williams Collection. Betty Williams, a theatrical costumer in New York City, pioneered research on commercial patterns in the early 1980s. She became a leader in the field, establishing a major personal pattern collection and encouraging others to actively participate in the collection and storage of patterns. Betty passed away in 1997, leaving a wealthy legacy of research, and an extensive pattern collection now housed at the University of Rhode Island.
The Betty Williams Collection is now combined with the Fashion Institute of Technology NYC Collection, the Joy Spanabel Emery Collection, the University of Rhode Island Collection, and other collections from various institutions as the Commercial Pattern Archive. CoPA is physically housed at the Carothers Library & Learning Commons at the University of Rhode Island, as part of the Archives & Special Collections unit.
A Living Archive (2018-Present)
Sadly, Professor Emery passed away in 2018. However, Joy's legacy at URI continues to live on in her numerous contributions to the Commercial Pattern Archive. Among these is the Joy Spanabel Emery Endowment Fund at the Rhode Island Foundation. This endowment provides the URI Libraries with a modest stipend to ensure the ongoing maintenence of this delicate collection and to allow Joy's work in pattern cataloging and research to continue. These efforts carry on under the supervision of Karen Walton-Morse, Head of URI Archives and Special Collections; and Kristen Mathieu, Commercial Pattern Archive Coordinator.
Today, the Commercial Pattern Archive is home to over 60,000 physical patterns, fashion magazines, books, and ephemera. It remains the largest collection in the world of its kind. The CoPA-Online Database is currently free to use as part of the University's Open Access initiatives. With research and education as the backbone of the Commercial Pattern Archive, it continues to be an invaluable resource for historians, fashion designers, costumers, students, and other researchers. While the CoPA collection is non-circulating, it still presents visitors to the archive with a truly unique opportunity to do hands-on work with vintage and antique sewing patterns and print materials related to the home sewing industry.
Visitors are welcome to view and trace materials in the Commercial Pattern Archive by appointment. We are open for research appointments Mondays through Fridays, from 9am to 4pm, excluding state and federal holidays.
Acknowledgements
The project is supported in part by:
Contributions from individual pattern enthusiasts and collectors.
Joy Spanabel Emery Endowment Fund, Rhode Island Foundation
Betty Williams Pattern Fund
United States Institute for Theatre Technology Edward F. Kook Endowment Fund,
United States Institute for Theatre Technology Commissioners Fund
University of Rhode Island Foundation Faculty Assistance Fund,
University of Rhode Island Council for Research,
The Rhode Island Foundation ADDD Fund,
The Rhode Island Council for the Humanities
National Endowment for the Humanities
