By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Arti-Facts: Domestic Sewing Machine
2894a.jpg
In the late 1800s sewing machine manufacturers included names like Singer, Domestic and Wheeler & Wilson. The Green County Historical Museum has vintage sewing machines from all of the major manufacturers.

The sewing machine by Domestic Manufacturing Company shown here was donated in 1950 by the late Mrs. Nell Miller Teschke and used by her mother the late Mrs. Charles Miller of Monroe.

The first Domestic sewing machines were produced until 1869 in Norwalk, Ohio. The company moved its headquarters to New York City in 1870.

Like many of the men running sewing machine companies during the post Civil War period, the president of the firm came from the gun making industry and brought many of the principles of using interchangeable parts in the manufacturing of sewing machines.

In 1871 the company produced 10,000 sewing machines and 40,000 the following year. Although the company secured a niche market as makers of fine quality, light-running models, it never seriously rivaled the Singer sewing machine.

The Domestic remained an independent producer of sewing machines until 1924 when it was taken over by the White Sewing Machine Company, which maintained it as a subsidiary. The Domestic brand was still used well into the second half of the 20th century.