Lace Samples from Ipswich, Massachusetts, 1789-1790 : Karen Thompson : 9780999038505 : 0999038508 : 25 May 2017 : Tucked among Alexander Hamilton's papers at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, is a rare collection of twenty-one samples of black silk lace handmade by lace makers in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1789 and 1790. Karen Thompson has reconstructed these important lace samples and makes them accessible to lace makers and historians in this book. A short introductory chapter on the Ipswich lace industry gives a glimpse into post-Revolutionary War life in the small town of Ipswich, where 600 lace makers made 42,000 yards of beautiful lace for sale in one year alone. The town relied on the substantial income generated by these fragile embellishments for fashionable clothing as they were exchanged for household necessities and luxury goods. The only documented commercial handmade lace industry in the United States in the late 1700s was in Ipswich, and its history provides imp