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Gates Museum has assembled a unique collection of over 250 antique sewing machines that represent the key developments in design and technology of sewing machines in their hay day.

The collection is made up equally of key examples of American, British and German sewing machines for the period between 1880 and 1930. There are fine examples of hand cranks and treadle machines as well as a unique collection of cabinet style machines.

The collection has been assembled to represent the key development stages of this period when sewing machines were developing rapidly and sold in vast quantities around the world. This evolutionary period had many milestones which are represented within the collection.

It is possible to track design fashions as well as technology breakthroughs. An examples of which is the evolution from oscillating to rotary shuttles.
Over time we intend to fully document the collection on-line to enable viewers from around the world to fully explore the unique collection.

 A selection of the machines from the Gates Collection, enjoy…

Gates Museum from gates museum on Vimeo.