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  • 2021-04-08 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Wheat Producers in the 1930s Make Flour Sacks To Be Fashioned Into Clothes? (en)
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  • In April 2021, the History All Day Facebook page posted a viral meme that described the practice, popular in the first half of the 20th century, of producing flour sacks imprinted with floral designs, so that millions of financially constrained Americans could convert them into clothing for their children. The meme, posted on April 7, consisted of a black-and-white photograph of a man standing amid what appears to be filled sacks with various designs, and the following text: In 1939, in Kansas, Wheat mills owners realized that women were using their sacks to make clothes for their children, the mills started using flowered fabric for their sacks so the kids would have pretty clothes, and the label would wash out, a gesture of pure kindness. The post contained a high degree of accuracy, although it potentially gave readers the false impression that the production and use of feed sack material as clothing was limited to Kansas in 1939. In fact, it was fairly commonplace throughout the United States for much of the early 20th century. The photograph below shows a particularly striking example of a feed sack dress made by Dorothy Overall from Caldwell, Kansas, as part of the 1959 Cotton Bag Sewing Contest. The dress was made from cotton bag fabric that had been imprinted with a white floral pattern by the manufacturers. It is housed at the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C., whose website provides the following succinct account of the now widely forgotten cultural phenomenon: In 2012, decorative arts historian Margaret Powell explained that although the use of feed sack clothing experienced its heyday during the Great Depression and World War II, it had been observed as early as the late 19th century, right up until the early 1960s: The photograph included in the History All Day meme is also authentic. It was taken by the renowned photographer Margaret Bourke-White at the Sunbonnet Sue flour mill in Kansas, in 1939. Its Life magazine entry contains the following description: Warehouse worker wheeling colorfully printed flour sacks which housewives use to make dresses because the labels wash out... (en)
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