Posted 8 years ago
boysfarm
(80 items)
I found several pieces of wool clothing in a trunk from England circa 1918. It was dated from the ship that brought it over.I cleaned out a house and surprisingly the clothing is dry and has no smell. Anyone recognize the labels?
I forgot to put Help!
I could read 'Clothing' and 'America' in the first picture, and 'Workers of' in the second. Google helped fill-in the blank for the word that was difficult to decipher: 'Issued by Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalgamated_Clothing_Workers_of_America 1914-1976
http://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/9594
Thank you. I see it now.
I guess American made and sent to Britain pre 1920.
I'm somewhat intrigued because you seem certain the clothes in the trunk date as far back as 1918. I mean, I understand the trunk has a label from when it was carried by ship from England, but the only way to know the contents are also that old would be if the label had been pasted over the trunk and lid, and you had to 'break the seal' of the 1918 label. If that were the case, then the trunk would be a genuine time capsule, and hopefully some of its other contents would be interesting enough to share. (I expect the trunk would have been full, because who would ship a trunk mostly empty across the Atlantic in 1918?)
If that's not the case, then it's more likely the clothes were stored in the trunk some time after. It's really the style of the clothing that could accurately date them, e.g.: are the trousers high-waisted (which would most likely be the case before 1940s), would the jacket be snug-fitted instead of straight and loose, etc.
Im glad to have a chance to tell this story again.About five years ago I received a call to come clear out a cottage, Not my first. I went the house and the deck was covered in boxes and trunks and a variety of other items. Take it all or it goes in the garbage.
I did.
The trunks 4 of them . Two were mostly filled with second world war Canadian uniforms from a reserve section that was in charge of internment camps, their were documents photos pictures and uniforms hats pants everything. This we ended up selling two years later. [You cant keep everything] The other trunk were filled with clothing and WW1 military uniforms from Calvary, Jodhpurs , Jackets hats,and a pile of woolen clothing. I hate to say it I threw out a lot of great stuff, lack of knowledge and exhaustion. Their was that much to go through.
I still have the trunk a lot of the clothing , womens underthings? my daughter has them all of which are definitely Edwardian. Some of the smalls in the trunks were the cardboard doll in another Show and Tell, two Amelia Earhart bisque, one I sold.
Their was too much, at first. I wish it had happened over a few days and maybe I would have kept more.I will try to get to the other items over the next while.
The jackets tag is pre union, and from this batch . I think someone with a better knowledge that I would be able to identify the sewing and style.