West Virginia and Regional History Center
1549 University Ave.Grace Musgrave
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.
No special access restriction applies.
[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Anna Schein, Collector, Feedsack Textile Bag Collection, A&M 4432, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.
This collection consists of 38 feedsacks, feedsack textiles, and items made from feedsack textiles. Feedsacks were manufactured with dress goods quality textiles in the period 1925-1960, so although they were used for the distribution of animal feed, flour, beans, etc., they were frequently repurposed for the creation of household and clothing items, especially during World War II and after. This collection represents a wide variety of feedsack types, purposes, and uses.
Series include:
Series 1a. Background Material, ca. 1925-2019, box 1
Series 1b. Feedsacks, ca. 1925-1960s, boxes 1-4
Series 2. Feedsack Textiles, ca. 1925-1960s, boxes 5-7
Series 3. Items Made from Feedsack Textile, ca. 1925-1960s, boxes 7-8
Series 4. Embroidery, ca. 1925-1960s, box 9
Series 5. Clothing, ca. 1925-1960s, boxes 10-11
Series 1a includes background material provided by the collector, including a patent for dressgoods feedsack textile, a bibliography
of important sources, etc.
Series 1b includes fully-intact printed and non-printed feedsacks from a variety of sources.
Series 2 includes printed and non-printed feedsack textiles, or feedsacks with the seams removed for repurposing) from a variety
of sources.
Series 3 includes items made from feedsack textile, including bedsheets, bibs, potholders, and other such items.
Series 4 includes feedsack textiles fashioned into handembroidered tea towels.
Series 5 includes clothing made from feedsack textiles, including a women's dress and apron and a men's nightshirt (boxes
10-11).
This series includes background material provided by the collector on the history of feedsacks and how they were used, including a patent for dressgoods feedsacks, a digital swatchbook of feedsack patterns, historical articles, and a bibliography of sources.
This series includes patterned and non-patterned feedsacks with a variety of uses, sizes, and manufacturers.
The "Gardening Man" is a waffle-weave feedsack. This particular pattern was sold to promote Harry S. Truman's presidential campaign, often accompanied with the saying, "The purchase of this 'gardening man' feedsack in bright colors was a vote for the Democrats and Truman."
This is a loose weave feedsack used for larger agricultural commodity milled products, such as animal feeds, that would not leak out the looser weave.
This patterned dressgoods feedsack has a removable paper band label still intact. Paper band labels were made easily removable so it was easier for women to render the sack into a length of fabric.
This is a Percy Kent solid color feedsack with the pattern for a cut-out doily set printed on the back. The front of the feedsack has a printed advertisement stating, "My mama made all these things from cotton bags." Directions for removing the printing ink is also on printed on this sack.
This is a chicken feed sack with the paper spot label still intact. Like with the paper bands, the paper spots were attached with an easily removable adhesive for better ease of use.
This is a sack manufactured by the Bemis Brothers Bag Company with the Gooch's company logo printed directly on the textile.
This is a plain white, high-threadcount sheeting cloth sack with a stamped embroidery pattern. The paper label advertises, "Fine, high threadcount, Ideal for pillowcases and sheets. Sew four together for sheets. Excellent for clothing. May be dyed."
This is an early Bemis Brothers Bac Gompany flour sack with the logo printed directly on the sack with permanent ink. The barrel size and pounds are also printed directly on the sack with permanent ink.
This is a homespun agricultural commondity sack. The term homespun refers to a type of loosely-woven homemade fabric made from a specific type of yarn not often purchased in stores.
This is a Bemis Brothers Bag Company flour sack with the logo printed directly on the sack with removable ink. The logo on this sack is round, which was a carry-over on early sacks from the round logos used on barrel lids.
This is a Chase Bag Company sack with a children's embroidery pattern on the back, advertised to be used "To Occupy Little Fingers."
This is a toweling sack (or a sack made of fabric typically used for tea towels) with the paper band label still intact. There is a bottom paper advertising piece sewn into the sack statin gth ecotton and linen content of the fibers and suggestions for the use of the fabric.
This is a Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills sack with the directions for removing ink, advertisement to write for a free National Cotton Council idea booklet for sewing with cotton bags printed directly on the sack in removable ink.
This is a Bemis Brothers Bag Company sack made from Cambric cloth, a high-grade, treated, finely-woven textile often used for flour sacks, handkerchiefs, and fine clothing. Directions for unraveling the sack string and removing the ink are printed directly on the sack. Also printed directly on the sack is the following statement: "We have packed this flour in a Genuine Cambric Cloth Bag so that you may use it for many household and clothing purposes."
This Southern Mills sack is a flour sack with a cut-out doll pattern printed on the back in color.
This is a Chase Bag Company sack sold by its barrel equivalent (in this case, 1/4 of the barrel was 49 lbs.).
This is a commercially-manufactured heavy seamless sack made from osnaburg fabric, a coarse and rough plain fabric dating back to the 1730s.
This is a "new old stock" or not yet sewn textile feedsack with a "country road" pictorial scene graphic illustration. This illustration and logo makes this feedsack newer, as older feedsacks had round logos, a carry-over from wooden barrel logos.
This is a border-print textile bag with a paper band label still intact, advertising, "This is a sleep-land pillowcase bag ready-to-use."
This series includes a variety of feedsack textiles with a wide range of patterns, manufacturers, and labels.
This is a tight weave feedsack with the Empire logo printed in between each repeat of the pattern.
This feedsack textile is cheater cloth used for quilting. Cheater cloth was printed in popular quilt patterns (like Grandmother's Flower Garden) and was used to elimate time-consuming quilt top piecing. The cheater cloth sacks would be sewed together to create the quilt top and layered with batting and a quilt back. The quilt would then be quilted and bound by hand or machine.
This sugar sack has the National Recovery Act eagle logo printed directly on the sack.
This Wertham Industries sack has two paper band labels still fully intact, advertising "[a] full square yard...get this pretty, colorfast fabric for aprons, for curtains, for blouses, for tablecloths, gay material for many household and clothing uses."
This floral printed feedsack is made of coarser and heavier fabric than most dressgoods feedsacks.
This feedsack textile depicts scenes of the various powers and members of the United Nations involved in World War II, including Japan, Germany, and other countries. This particular sack textile has a numbered pattern (233).
This striped-weave feedsack has a blue and white toile pattern. Toile, or Toile de Jouy, refers to a complex repeated pattern depicting a pastoral scene on a white or offwhite background.
This series includes a variety of household items made from feedsack textile, including bedsheets, potholders, tablecloths, and other items.
This kitchen print tablecloth is made from four separate feedsacks.
This flat bedsheet is made of four white dressgoods feedsacks sewn together.
This fitted bedsheet is made from four dressgoods feedsacks, two white feedsacks and two blue and pink border printed feedsacks.
This drapery panel was made from a single blue and pink floral printed feedsack.
This potholder was made from a floral feedsack textile; it looks remarkably like the bonnet from the "Sunbonnet Sue" quilt and appliqué pattern that has been popular since the early 1900s.
This baby bib is bordered with a striped binding. The ears of the bunny would have tied around the child's neck for use.
This small laundry bag makes use of shoestrings to cinch the bag closed.
This clothespin bag is a repurposed toddler dress made from feedsack; the sleeves and bottom of the dress have been sewn closed to create the bag.
This pillow cover is made from a single blue printed feedsack; the textile's original seaming holes are still visible in the finished pillow cover.
This series includes handembroidered tea towels made from feedsacks with a variety of embroidered patterns.
This tea towel is made from a single white feedsack and is handembroidered with two cats, one with a sailor's hat and the other with a handkerchief, and the statement, "Be Suspicious."
This tea towel is made from a single white feedsack and is handembroidered with a cat riding a bike and the phrase, "Ride a Bike."
This tea towel is made from a single white feedsack and is handembroidered with a cat with an Army hat and the phrase, "V for Victory."
This tea towel is made from a single white feedsack and is handembroidered with a cat and the phrase, "Pennies for Defense."
This tea towel is made from a single white feedsack and is handembroidered with a cat with an Air Force hat and the phrase, "Keep 'Em Flying."
This tea towel is made from a single white feedsack and is handembroidered with a cat and the phrase, "Uncle Sam Wants You."
This tea towel is made from a single white feedsack and is handembroidered with a train and the phrase, "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain."
This tea towel is made from a single white feedsack and is handembroidered with a dancing couple and the phrase, "Turkey in the Straw."
This series consists of three items of clothing made from feedsack textiles: a bib apron, a women's day dress, and a men's nightshirt.
This apron is made from white-and-teal patterned feedsack textile and matches the women's day dress.
This dress was made from white-and-teal polka-dotted feedsack and matches the bib apron.
This men's nightshirt was made from green-and-white patterned feedsack.