QUILT HISTORY STORIES
ELGIN, ILLINOIS
Collingbourne Mills and Virginia Snow Studios Story
Book 1 and Book 2
Susan Wildemuth, Atkinson, IL
Quick Facts and Significant Dates
Western Thread and Dye Works, Chicago, Illinois
Filed: November 24, 1902
Incorporated: December 13, 1902
Western Thread Company, Elgin, Illinois
Name Change: 1908-1909
Location Change Ratified: December 2, 1909
Opened for business in Elgin, Illinois: 1910
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Albert Collingbourne joins the firm as an employee about 1912
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Albert Collingbourne becomes President of Western Thread Company in 1913-1914
Virginia Snow Studios began appearing on literature about 1913
Collingbourne Mills
Name used interchangeably with Western Thread Company until 1924 when the
company was incorporated
Collingbourne Mills, Inc.
Incorporated March 17, 1924
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Virginia Snow Studios
Department of Collingbourne Mills, Inc.
Art Needlework Mail-order and Retail Division
Built in 1926
Owner
Albert B. Collingbourne started as an employee and became owner in the 1910s.
Dissolution
Collingbourne Mills, Inc. went into receivership in 1938-1939. There is no exact date listed on any corporation paperwork filed with the State of Illinois on his departure date, but Albert Collingbourne stepped away from his company about 1939. The name Collingbourne Mills was used into the 1940s, but only for a short time before the name was retired.
Products Produced
Western Thread Company, Collingbourne Mills, Collingbourne Mills, Inc.
Sewing, knitting, crocheting, quilting, embroidery, and packaging thread was the major product of Western Thread Company and Collingbourne Mills. Papers filed with the State of Illinois Business Office state the company’s purpose was “the manufacture of and the buying and selling of threads, yarns, tapes, braids, and cords, the dyeing of cotton, silk, and woolen threads and yarns, and the mercerizing of threads and yarns.” (1)
Virginia Snow Studios
Albert Collingbourne built Virginia Snow Studios, an Art Needlework Department of Collingbourne Mills, Inc., to create a need for his thread through its stamped goods, needlework instruction books, and myriad packaged needle art kits.
