CoPA-Online contains 55,000+ scanned images (garments & pattern schematics) from commercially produced patterns; unique tool to recreate or date clothing from 1847 to present.
The Commercial Pattern Archive database, CoPA-Online, is the brainchild of Joy Spanabel Emery (1936-2018), founding curator of the Commercial Pattern Archive at the University of Rhode Island. It provides a unique tool for researchers and designers to recreate or date clothing from 1847 to present. Collections from the US, Canada and the UK are represented in the database which functions like a Union Catalog of pattern collections. The Pattern Archive is a project of the US Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) Costume Commission. The cornerstone of CoPA is the Betty Williams Collection.
