Monograms: The Early Years

      We stitch them on everything from bed sheets and towels to purses and sweaters. Since when did emblazoning our belongings with our initials become so popular? While we can’t tell you the exact date that some wise person invented monograms, we can give you some historical references about society’s love of labeling possessions with letters.

      Personal monograms on fabrics for individuals and families were originally invented to keep linens separate from those of other families on wash days, says Caroline Brackenridge, owner of Monogram Inc., a New York-based custom monogram business. Brackenridge says laundresses usually went to a stream or river together to wash clothes all at once, making it easy to mix up items between families.

      Wealthy Americans believed that the sun in Holland and the West Indies was especially good for bleaching linens. They shipped them overseas to be “grassed” – laid on fields to be bleached, dried and sanitized – and often had as many as 10 dozen sets monogrammed because of the lengthy travel time and possibility of getting someone else’s instead of theirs back.

      Now monograms are considered more of a special tradition, particularly since we don’t have to send our laundry all the way to Europe or the Caribbean to be washed.

Liz Aull, “Monograms: The Early Years,” EMB Mazagine, September 2005 issue

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