Cooper Hewitt says...
F. Schumacher & Co., Inc. designs, manufactures, and supplies decorative textiles for homes and other interior spaces. It was founded by Parisian, Frederic Schumacher, who worked for the textile company, Passavant & Co. After buying the entire stock of Passavant in 1889, he started F. Schumacher & Co that same year on Twenty-second Street and Broadway in New York City. Schumacher initially catered to the mansions and hotels of the Gilded Age and imported sumptuous woven and printed textiles from Europe. Clients included architecture and design firms McKim Mead & White, Herter Brothers, Tiffany Studios, Richard Morris Hunt, and many important decorators. In 1895, they began domestic production by opening their own silk weaving mill in Paterson, New Jersey, which was home to many French immigrant weavers. They also made a concerted effort to represent modern design and were part of the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900, where they offered a small selection of Art Nouveau fabrics. Pierre Pozier, nephew of Frederic Schumacher, was the person responsible for introducing a more modern line, and he travelled to Europe in 1923 and 1924, where he began to assemble a collection of printed and woven textiles for the Moderne Collection. Among the designers who participated were Raoul Dufy, Paul Poiret, and Joseph Urban.
When the company was only a few years old, it was commissioned by Stanford White to produce a fabric for the White House Blue Room. This began an extensive relationship with many administrations thereafter including Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy.
Schumacher understood the need for more affordable textiles, and Waverly Decorative Fabric Division was established in 1935. It distributed inexpensive prints to decorators, upholsterers, and shops and enjoyed immediate popularity with budget-conscious consumers.
Today, the company is still family-owned and produces both high-end and affordable textiles.
