Purple Heart Medal > Why Purple?
Purple Heart Medal
Why Purple?
By Robert L. Marks
Past National Americanism Officer, Military Order of the Purple Heart
For more than ten years, I have often heard this familiar question: "Why was the color 'purple' selected for use in the design and manufacture of the world's oldest military decoration – the Purple Heart?" The following is the answer to that question.
Empress Si-Ling, wife of a famous emperor Huang-Ti (2640 BC), encouraged the cultivation of the mulberry tree, for the rearing of the worms, and the reeling of the silk. Empress Si-Ling is credited by the Chinese with the invention of the weaving loom on which the silk was woven into silk. Silk was highly valued in Asia Minor and the trade road to China became known as the Silk Road. Literally, silk became worth its weight in gold.
According to Confucius, it was in 2640 B.C. that the Chinese princess Hi-Ling was the first to reel a cocoon of silk. It is said that a silk worm had dropped into her cup of tea and from that historic moment the Chinese discovered the life cycle of the silk worm and the potential this insect held for their fabric industry.
For the next 3000 years the Chinese were to monopolize the production of silk as a fabric and keep the process of producing silk a secret among their people. In the Third Century B.C. Chinese silk fabrics were beginning to find their way throughout the whole of Asia and were transported overland to the west and by sea to Japan. These travels were known as the "Silk Roads". The often-mentioned Silk Road ran from internal China westward across the Gobi Desert through Persia (now Iran) to Arabia (now Middle East). Silks were a primary and valuable item of trade or barter carried by camel-back on long dangerous treks. Many maniacal robbers haunted the road. It was along this road to the Asian cultures that the Romans learned of this fine fabric but did not know of its origin, the silkworm nor the production process.
It was not until 550 AD that the Emperor Justinian decided to seek out the secrets of the China Silk fabric. She sent two monks on a mission to Asia and at the risk of their lives they stole mulberry seeds and silkworm eggs, secreted them into their walking staffs and brought them back to Byzantium. From this point on the news of this trade spread throughout Asia Minor and Greece.
The increased number of foreign merchants present in China under the Han Dynasty exposed both the Chinese and visitors to different cultures and religions. Buddhism spread from India to China because of trade along the Silk Road. In the 7th century the Arabs conquered the Persians (Iranians), capturing their magnificent silks in the process as they victoriously swept throughout Africa, Sicily and Spain. This helped to spread the silk weaving trade.
In the 10th Century, Andalusia was Europe's main silk-producing center. As the industrial market continued to grow throughout Europe, the passageways were opened to trade with many new countries. The Crusaders' journeys in China led to the development of commercial exchanges between East and West and to an ever-increasing use of silk. Because of this, Italy started a silk industry as early as the 12th Century. Soon afterward, France, Germany, Great Britain and Switzerland followed in this market.
All throughout Europe silk was being produced from silkworms. It was not until 1810 that the United States started to produce silk fabric. Our country never actually produced silk threads. We imported the threads from China and Japan and by new methods of production such as the power loom, were able to break into the fast growing industry of silk fabric. (Here Yankee ingenuity reared its head). Today China is still the leading producer and exporter of raw silk. Japan, India and Korea follow as leading exporters.
Silk is an animal fiber. It is the product of the silkworm, of which there are two varieties: the wild and the cultivated. The fibers of the wild silkworm are brown, instead of yellow to gray and have a coarse, hard texture. This worm feeds on the scrub oak instead of the mulberry leaf and grows in India, China and Japan. Fibers from the first two countries are called tussah silk and in Japan they are called wild silk. Tussah silk is used in such fabrics as shantung, pongee and shiki.
The cultivated silkworm requires a great deal of care. Quiet and sanitation are necessary. A silkworm farmer treats them as royalty to the extent of turning his house over to them in the feeding season; for when his attic floor becomes covered with mulberry leaves, each with its hungry worm, he carpets the rooms downstairs with more leaves and sleeps on the roof.
A whole scientific industry of raising mulberry trees for food for the worms, has grown up. The best mulberry leaves seem to come from the plants that are the result of a combination of the tall mulberry tree called the dwarf or shrub mulberry tree. Silkworms live for only about two months. Since the silkworm only exists now in captivity, an artificial diet has been developed to facilitate cultivation of silkworms, in case mulberry leaves are not available.
Cultivated silks are from yellow to gray in color. Chinese and Japanese silks are usually a creamy white, whereas Italian silks are yellow. The color of the wild silk fiber depends on the type of food the worm has eaten. The fiber is usually brown. The brown color is in the fiber itself but the color of the cultivated varieties is in the gum that can be removed by washing. Silk has a natural affinity to dye. Probably the chief reason is that silk fiber has a good penetrability. Basic acid and direct dyestuffs all are used on silks. Cotton and linen do not have so good an affinity for dye as silk.
Kings, royalty and other persons of imperial, royal or other high rank wore Purple Silks. In some countries, commoners were severely punished or fined for wearing what was known as "royal silks". During reign of the Roman Empire, silk was sold for its weight in gold.
The only undoubted notice of silk in the Bible occurs in Rev. 18:12, where it is mentioned among the treasures of the typical Babylon. It is, however, in the highest degree probable that the textile was known to the Hebrews from the time their commercial relations were extended by Solomon. The well-known classical name of the substance does not occur in the Hebrew language. The color "Purple" is mentioned in Proverbs 31:22 and Matthew 15:17.
Natural Indigo (Purple C16H10N2O2.) is perhaps the oldest dye known to man. The oldest historic tests speak of it, as in the colors chosen for the Tabernacle of the Arc of the Covenant. The oldest fragments of cloth are dyed with it. It is a dye known to all cultures of the world.
History is replete with information concerning the value and scarcity of "purple silk". Scarcity determines the value of any marketable product and so that has always been true with "purple silk". Purple raiment was also worn by the "crowns" of Europe and thereby influenced the developing social structure of our Colonists. Purple is known as the color of royalty.
General Washington chose purple silk for the fashioning of the three Badges of Military Merit which he awarded at his headquarters in Newburgh, New York. Since silk production started in the United States in 1810, the silk used in these three awards must have been imported. I believe it is entirely feasible that Mrs. Washington, because of her domestic skills, had a part in the development of these three Badges of Military Merit.
A concept of the Purple Heart design may originally have influenced the practice of making the best wooden stocks for flintlock muskets from the purple-colored heart of the trunk of the Purple Heart tree.
Elizabeth Will designed the original Purple Heart Medal which was announced on February 22, 1932.
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