The Jane Funderburk Fibrarium (fibre, Latin, fiber), established in 2006 at DOV, is a collection of 544 samples, accompanied by 106 microscope slides. Other collections of fibers exist, usually associated with private or government laboratories, museums, or academic departments in forensics, engineering, fashion design, art, etc. To our knowledge, significant fiber collections are held at these 13 museums: American Craft Museum, Arkansas Art Center/Little Rock, Art Institute of Chicago, Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Cleveland Museum of Art, Erie Art Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museum of the American Quilters Society, Oakland Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Renwick Gallery. However, none of these are organized with taxonomic expertise, such as is available at DOV.
Each sample (plant, animal, manufactured, or mineral) in the Jane Funderburk Fibrarium is:
authenticated by the collector or commercial company, with the state or country in which the samples were collected
identified to at least genus, but most often to species.
Suggested additional readings include:
American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists. 2005. Fiber analysis: Qualitative. AATCC Techn. Man. 20-2004.
_____. 2005. Fiber analysis: quantitative. AATCC Techn. Man. 20A-2004.
Armitage, F. D. 1957. An atlas of the commoner paper making fibres: An introduction to paper microscopy. Guildhall, London.
Binnqüist, R. C. L. 2003. The endurance of Mexican amate paper: Exploring additional dimensions to the sustainable development concept. Ph.D. Thesis, Univ. Twente, The Netherlands.
Friesen, P. L. 1994. Natural fibers. Arbidar Co., Sula, MT.
Hyland, F. 1974. Fiber analysis and distribution in the leaves, juvenile stems and roots of ten Maine trees and shrubs. Life Sci. Agric. Exp. Sta., Orono, ME.
Lofton, R. E. 1922. Photomicrography of paper fibers. U.S. Govt. Print. Off.
The Jane Funderburk Fibrarium is intended for display, scientific research, teaching, education and other Herbarium programs. Future goals are to add plant fibers with associated herbarium vouchers, i.e., rather than just "cotton" fiber, fibers of Gossypium hirsutum, G. herbaceum, G. barbadense, etc. The Claude E. Phillips Herbarium is a member of the Fiber Society.
Financial or fiber donations to the Jane Funderburk Fibrarium have included the following, with thanks. We welcome your future participation!
Family & friends of Jane Funderburk
Delaware Association of Family & Consumer Sciences
Dr. Thomas Zanoni