Cooper Hewitt says...
G. L. Kelty, a precursor to the Collins & Aikman Corporation, was founded in 1843 by Gibbons Kelty. The firm originally sold window shades in New York and gradually added home furnishing lines, operating a textile factory in Astoria, New York.
After Kelty's death, his nephew Charles Aikman founded C. M. Aikman & Co., which eventually incorporated a weaving manufacture located in Philadelphia in 1891 under the name of Collins & Aikman Company.
The firm became the first American producer of jacquard velvet in 1898. It then became an automotive manufacturer in the 1920s. The company went public in 1926 and was reincorporated as Collins & Aikman Corporation in 1927.
Collins & Aikman diversified in the manufacturing of decorative fabrics, spanning from knitted, woven, and tufted materials for apparel, to upholstery for home furnishings, area rugs, plush fabrics for toys, upholstery for automobiles and airplanes and spun yarns.
In 1956 Collins & Aikman was part of the Industry Committee for American Fabrics for the Textiles USA exhibition at MOMA, represented by Edward Smith.
In 1976 the company acquired Mastercraft Corporation of Spindale, North Carolina, the world's largest maker of woven Jacquard fabrics. Andrew Major, Mastercraft's owner, became president of the Collins & Aikman Decorative Fabric group, overseeing 6000 employees.
Collins & Aikman eventually went out of business on October 12, 2007.
