AUGUSTA — Textile and dress historian Jacqueline Field will present “The WWI Dye Shortage: Color, Clothes and Chemistry” at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 29, at the Maine State Library, 230 State St. The free event is the third talk in the March Collaborative Encounters series.

Field will address the little remembered war-time dye and chemical famine caused when the British blockaded German ports. She will discuss the United States’ dependence on German dyes and chemicals and the survival strategies adopted by the print, textile and clothing industries after supplies were cut off, and the scramble to develop a domestic dye industry.

Maine soldiers who mobilized during World War I included two units bound for Texas pictured here on parade in Bangor on June 22, 1916.
Maine soldiers who mobilized during World War I included two units bound for Texas pictured here on parade in Bangor on June 22, 1916. Photo courtesy Maine Historic Preservation Commission

Field’s talk is part of the March Collaborative Encounters series jointly sponsored by the Maine State Library, Maine State Museum and Maine State Archives. The museum’s new exhibition, “Over There and Down Home: Mainers and World War I,” will be open free of charge from 5 to 5:30 p.m. prior to the talk.

“Maine and World War I” will be the final presentation in the series at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 12. The presentation will include a talk and book signing by Jason Libby and Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr.

For more information, visit mainestatemuseum.org, or call the museum at 287-2301.

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