The company was located in Pawtucket, R.I. and ran narrow fabric looms for making braids and trimmings, ribbons, tapes and webbing. It was founded by Harold F. Sherman in 1965 after a long career in the textile industry. Born in 1885 in Melrose, Mass., Sherman worked at various companies after his graduation from high school in 1905. He founded Sherman Textile Co. in 1915 in Worcester, Mass.; illness forced him to sell this business in 1925. In 1926 he began Sherman Looms, Inc., also in Worcester, which produced jacquard and dobby corset cloth, drapery and other special fabrics made of cotton, silk, acetate, covered rubber, Lastex and wool; this company went out of business in 1934. From 1934-1938, Sherman worked at Russell Manufacturing Co. in Middletown, Conn. and started Sherman Products, a very short-lived company, in 1938. In 1939 he established Harold F. Sherman, Inc. in Pawtucket, R.I. This company developed loop tape used in suits for astronauts, survival vests and webbing, and made woven narrow elastic and non-elastic fabrics and shoulder straps, mainly for women's undergarments. It also made braiding for military uniforms and all types of elastic webbing.
In 1959, Sherman sold the company, then operating under the name Textile Webbing Corp. In 1965, Sherman began the Sherman Textile Corp. and served as president until his death in 1970. After his death, his wife, Jane, and their daughter, Martha, ran the company until it closed in 1988.
From the description of [Business records]. 1887-1988. (American Textile History Museum Library). WorldCat record id: 51561295
