A Roosevelt Commemorative

This woven bookmark with President Theodore Roosevelt was made for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, an international exposition celebrating the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase. The exposition also was known informally as the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904 and was held from April 30th to December 1st. The bookmark was manufactured by the Anderson Brothers Silk Company of Paterson, New Jersey. John E. Anderson, who was born in France, founded the company in Paterson in about 1880 after working in other Paterson silk mills for several years. He operated the company with his three brothers. The Roosevelt bookmark is similar to the stevengraph, the small woven commemorative pictures first produced by the company Thomas Stevens (English, 1828–1888) started in Coventry, England in the 1860s. Stevens had many imitators by the early years of the twentieth century. Like Stevens, the Anderson Brothers Silk Company set up looms and other equipment at various exhibitions to weave their products in front of attendees. They showcased their technical skill in 1912 at the New York Electrical Exposition and Automobile Show and later at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco during 1915.