Editing Silk (section)

===North America===
Wild silk taken from the nests of [[Madrone_butterfly#Use_of_silk_nests|native butterfly]] and [[Eutachyptera#Use of larvae and silk|moth]] caterpillars was used by the [[Aztecs]] to make containers and as paper.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=P.G. |first1=Kevan |last2=R.A. |first2=Bye |date=1991 |title=Natural history, sociobiology, and ethnobiology of ''Eucheira socialis'' Westwood (Lepidoptera: Pieridae), a unique and little-known butterfly from Mexico |url=http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=US201301742531 |journal=Entomologist |language=en |issn=0013-8878 |access-date=26 September 2018 |archive-date=28 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728113545/https://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=US201301742531 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Hogue-1993">{{cite book |title=Latin American insects and entomology |url=https://archive.org/details/latinamericanins00hogu |url-access=limited |last=Hogue |first=Charles Leonard |date=1993 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0520078499 |location=Berkeley |pages=[https://archive.org/details/latinamericanins00hogu/page/n173 325] |language=en |oclc=25164105 |quote=Silk swaths gathered from the large hammock-net cocoons of Gloveria psidii (= Sagana sapotoza) and pasted together to form a kind of hard cloth, or paper, were an important trade item in Mexico at the time of Moctezuma II}}</ref>  Silkworms were introduced to [[Oaxaca Valley|Oaxaca]] from Spain in the 1530s and the region profited from silk production until the early 17th century, when the king of Spain banned export to protect Spain's silk industry. Silk production for local consumption has continued until the present day, sometimes spinning wild silk.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/pdf_publications/pdf/unbroken_thread_eng_vl.pdf |title=The Unbroken Thread: Conserving the Textile Traditions of Oaxaca |last=de Avila |first=Alejandro |publisher=The Getty Conservation Institute |year=1997 |editor-last=Klein |editor-first=Kathryn |location=Los Angeles |pages=125–126 |access-date=26 September 2018 |archive-date=6 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201206161850/https://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/pdf_publications/pdf/unbroken_thread_eng_vl.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

King [[James VI and I|James I]] introduced silk-growing to the British colonies in America around 1619, ostensibly to discourage [[tobacco]] planting. The [[Shakers]] in Kentucky adopted the practice.
[[File:Satin mã châu 2.jpg|thumb|upright|Satin from Mã Châu village, Vietnam]]
[[File:Smithsonian Holyoke SkinnersSatins Sample.jpg|left|thumb|A sample of a silk satin in the [[National Museum of American History]], produced by [[William Skinner and Sons|William Skinner & Sons]] of [[Holyoke, Massachusetts]], the largest producer of such textiles in the world in the early 20th century<ref name="largestmill">{{cite magazine |title=The Largest Silk Mill in the World; The Story of Skinner Silks and Satins |magazine=Silk |publisher=Silk Publishing Company |location=New York |date=May 1912 |issue=6 |volume=5 |pages=62–64 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R_E_AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA4-PA62 |access-date=14 December 2018 |archive-date=29 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200129180050/https://books.google.com/books?id=R_E_AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA4-PA62 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
The history of industrial silk in the United States is largely tied to several smaller urban centers in the Northeast region. Beginning in the 1830s, [[Manchester, Connecticut]] emerged as the early center of the silk industry in America, when the Cheney Brothers became the first in the United States to properly raise silkworms on an industrial scale; today the [[Cheney Brothers Historic District]] showcases their former mills.<ref name="nhlsum">{{cite web|title=Cheney Brothers Historic District|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1793&ResourceType=District|url-status=dead|access-date=2007-10-03|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service|archive-date=8 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071008222331/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1793&ResourceType=District}}</ref> With the [[mulberry tree]] craze of that decade, other smaller producers began raising silkworms. This economy particularly gained traction in the vicinity of [[Northampton, Massachusetts]] and its neighboring [[Williamsburg, Massachusetts|Williamsburg]], where a number of small firms and cooperatives emerged. Among the most prominent of these was the cooperative utopian Northampton Association for Education and Industry, of which [[Sojourner Truth]] was a member.<ref>{{cite web |website=Silk in Northampton |title=Becoming Sojourner Truth: The Northampton Years |publisher=Smith College |url=https://www.smith.edu/hsc/silk/papers/owens.html |date=12 April 2002 |last=Owens |first=Jody |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030817163542/https://www.smith.edu/hsc/silk/papers/owens.html |archive-date=17 August 2003}}</ref> Following the destructive [[Mill River Flood of 1874]], one manufacturer, [[William Skinner (manufacturer)|William Skinner]], relocated his mill from Williamsburg to the then-new city of [[Holyoke]]. Over the next 50 years he and his sons would maintain relations between the American silk industry and its counterparts in Japan,<ref>For discussion on W. Skinner II's relations with Japanese ministers and merchant-traders, see {{cite book |editor=Lindsay Russell |title=America to Japan: A Symposium of Papers by Representative Citizens of the United States on the Relations between Japan and America and on the Common Interests of the Two Countries |publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons; The Knickerbocker Press; The Japan Society |location=New York |year=1915 |page=66 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sngeAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA66 |access-date=14 December 2018 |archive-date=29 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229190014/https://books.google.com/books?id=sngeAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA66 |url-status=live }}
:* {{cite journal |title=Luncheon to Commissioner Shito |journal=The American Silk Journal |volume=XXXIV |page=32 |date=May 1915 |publisher=Silk Association of America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lFlYAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA4-PA32 |access-date=14 December 2018 |archive-date=23 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223030745/https://books.google.com/books?id=lFlYAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA4-PA32 |url-status=live }}
:* {{cite book |title=Samurai and Silk: A Japanese and American Heritage |year=1986 |last=Reischauer |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Mass. |first=Haru Matsukata |chapter=Starting the Silk Trade |pages=207–209 |isbn=9780674788015 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mvmaskWH1XkC&pg=PA207 |access-date=14 December 2018 |archive-date=30 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191230105620/https://books.google.com/books?id=mvmaskWH1XkC&pg=PA207 |url-status=live }}</ref> and expanded their business to the point that by 1911, the Skinner Mill complex contained the largest silk mill under one roof in the world, and the brand Skinner Fabrics had become the largest manufacturer of silk satins internationally.<ref name="largestmill"/><ref>{{cite news |work=Valley Advocate |location=Northampton, Mass. |date=8 June 2009 |last=Thibodeau |first=Kate Navarra |title=William Skinner & Holyoke's Water Power |url=https://valleyadvocate.com/2009/06/08/william-skinner-s-water-power/ |access-date=14 December 2018 |archive-date=31 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191231234524/https://valleyadvocate.com/2009/06/08/william-skinner-s-water-power/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Other efforts later in the 19th century would also bring the new silk industry to [[Paterson, New Jersey]], with several firms hiring European-born textile workers and granting it the nickname "Silk City" as another major center of production in the United States.

[[World War II]] interrupted the silk trade from Asia, and silk prices increased dramatically.<ref>{{cite book |last=Weatherford |first=D |title=American Women During World War II: An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2009 |page=97 |isbn=978-0415994750}}</ref> U.S. industry began to look for substitutes, which led to the use of [[synthetic fiber|synthetics]] such as [[nylon]]. Synthetic silks have also been made from [[lyocell]], a type of [[cellulose]] fiber, and are often difficult to distinguish from real silk (see [[spider silk]] for more on synthetic silks).