History of Singer & 15-91 — Code Cat Corner

Even if you have never sewed, you might have heard of Singer before. It is a company that has its origins in the 1850s in the USA. And it DOMINATED the sewing machine world. I’m going to focus specifically on the history of the 15-91 but if you want to know more about the company and why it dominated the market, I’ve included some links in the resources below. If you have time, you can also read up on the founder, Isaac Singer, who seems to have led a wild life that at one point involved keeping up multiple separate families that didn’t know about each other….

15-91

The 15-91 is part of the 15 Singer series which was started in 1879. The 15 series is notable not only for how long it was produced, but the number of variants over the series. Technically, Singer stopped manufacturing the 15 series in the 1950s, but you will find clones being manufactured even today (if you are interested in the clones, you can learn more here). If you want more technical details on all the differences in the model 15 series, this is a good resource: Singer Model 15 Comparisons

The 15-91 was manufactured between 1930 and 1956. It has a potted electric motor (introduced first on Singer’s 101 in the 1920s) which is you can see noted in the diagram below. What I find interesting however is that despite the large amount of 15-91s produced and their popularity today, there doesn’t seem any mention of them on Singer’s own website, even in historical terms. In fact, most information I have found on the Singer 15-91 is by going through information put together by vintage sewing machine enthusiasts.

As with many things old, you can now find a lot of resources online for the 15-91 including the manual. There is also an online guide for 15-91 cabinets, which is how I found out I have the No. 40 Cabinet (Queen Anne Style).

If you have a vintage Singer machine, and want to learn more about it, I would recommend using this International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society Guide. You can actually learn a lot from the serial number, including where it was manufactured.

For example, my serial code starts w/ JB. J stands for the manufacturing plant St. Johns (Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec) which verifies what I was told by the family. And JB serial codes were issued from 1936 - 1948. If your machine is also from St Johns you can find more information here.