Dyed Silk

This piece of silk was dyed by Sir William Henry Perkin in 1860
and presented to William John Matheson on October 8, 1906.

This colorful souvenir is historically significant. In 1856, while a student at the Royal College of Chemistry, William Henry Perkin spent his spring vacation in a crude laboratory in the attic of his house in East London. There he discovered that aniline, a colorless aromatic oil derived from coal tar, could be transformed into a black gunk that, when mixed with alcohol, would turn fabrics bright purple. With patent in hand, Perkin established the artificial dye industry. Wealth and honors followed soon thereafter. In 1906, while in New York for a lavish celebration of the 50th anniversary of the coal tar industry, Perkin visited William John Matheson, an American who imported artificial dyes and pigments, and probably gave him this memento at that time. Matheson, in turn, gave it to the Smithsonian.

Source is Smithsonian. Souvenirs of Science.