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“Thanks from Oppuers”

The Europeana Collections website 1914-1918 put me on the trail of this unique photograph of two young, Belgian embroiderers, plus two decorated flour sacks in a private collection [1].

In the online contribution “Oscar De Keersmaecker from Oppuurs”, his son Jozef talks about his father’s experiences as a soldier in WWI and the burning down of his father-in-law’s mill in 1914. Jozef De keersmaecker is Honorary Alderman of Oppuurs, he is also a writer of historical books, including the “History of Oppuurs 1311-2003”.

This story “Thanks from Oppuers” (“Oppuers” is the old spelling of “Oppuurs”) brings together a Belgian and an American mill.

View of Oppuurs, November 2019

Oppuurs, part of the municipality Puurs-Sint-Amands, is located in the province of Antwerp. I traveled there in November, Mr. and Mrs. De keersmaecker-Verbruggen were so kind to welcome me in their home to study the decorated flour sacks and shared with me the accompanying family stories.

Memory of the mill of Oppuurs, painted by M. Depaep, 1950. De keersmaecker-Verbruggen collection

The mill of Oppuurs was originally a wooden grain windmill, which was founded before 1508. In 1887, miller Petrus Edmond Verbruggen inherited the mill from his deceased wife. Verbruggen remarried Maria Rosalia Van Der Linden; when he died in 1907, he left the mill to his wife and children.

Photo of the mill of Oppuurs, early 1900. Image: History of Oppuurs 1311-2003

In the meantime, during a storm in 1898, the standard mill had been toppled, but had been rebuilt in 1901 as a “belt mill” with a fairly high base, grounded on a slope. After the outbreak of the First World War, fate struck again. The Belgian army set fire to the mill: the mill would obstruct the view from the Bornem fort of the advancing German troops; and if they would advance, the mill could not serve as a lookout post for them.

The mill was never rebuilt on the spot, the only thing that reminds us today is the mill well. [2]

The miller’s family Verbruggen went with the times, in 1917-1918 they founded a new steam mill at Oppuurs station. After years of back and forth, the Belgian state eventually paid compensation for the destruction of the mill.

Family photo Verbruggen. Image: History of Oppuurs 1311-2003

A lot of needlework has been done in the family of Rosalie Verbruggen-Van Der Linden. The girls went to school in Oppuurs and were educated by the nuns of Annonciaden from Veltem; by far the majority of people in the village owe part of their upbringing to these nuns.
A lace school was founded in 1912.

Pupils of the lace school in 1912. Image: History of Oppuurs 1311-2003
L: Irène Verbruggen, R. Antoinette Verbruggen, sisters, aunts of Jeanneke Verbruggen. Image: History of Oppuurs 1311-2003

Antoinette and Irena Verbruggen made a diptych on flour sacks with the image of the family mill in operational and destroyed condition: “Praise and Thanks Oppuers 1914” and “America Relief in Need 1915”. It was hemmed with a wide strip of lace and decorated with band and brushes. It must have been a colorful needlework.

The girls proudly showed their work in the photo. On the back of the photo is written: ”L. Irène Verbruggen, R. Antoinette Verbruggen, sisters, aunts of Jeanneke Verbruggen. These sacks were a memento as a thank you for the American help. They are flour sacks and are owned by the Verbruggen family.”

Unfortunately, it is not known whether the decorated flour sacks on the photograph have been preserved.

The entire Verbruggen-Van Der Linden family was portrayed during the photo session, nine children were still alive. The two boys, Modest and Frans, are on the left and right of their mother Rosalie; they would continue the business. Irena and Antoinette would later enter the monastery as nuns.
Sister Rozalia, daughter of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Antonia Verbruggen (Oppuurs 1898.06.27 – Rumst 1989.07.07) was professed in Opwijk on August 25, 1929.
Her sister Irena Verbruggen (Oppuurs 1893.06.19 – Ternat 1984.03.09) entered the Ursuline sisters in Mollem on August 16, 1917 and took her perpetual vows there on October 21, 1925; her name was Sister Edmond.
Two other sisters Verbruggen, Maria and Louise, became teachers with permanent appointments at the elementary school in Oppuurs.

Decorated flour sack “Koene Held” (Valiant Hero), 1914-1916

There are two well-preserved flour sacks in the family. After the death of Frans Verbruggen, his eldest daughter Jeanne and her husband Jozef De keersmaecker dicovered the sacks at his home.

I have written about one of these decorated flour sacks before, in my blog “Verwondering over een Koene Held” (“Marvel of a Valiant Hero”).

Flour sack “Belgian Relief Flour, Wheatland, WYO, with embroidery “Thanks from Oppuers “, hemmed with a wide lace border
Flour sack ‘Belgian Relief Flour, Wheatland Roller Mill Co., Wheatland, Wyoming, VS

“Dank van Oppuers” (Thanks from Oppuers) is written in capital letters on the flour sack from Wheatland Roller Mill Co. in Wheatland, Wyoming, USA. The sack “Belgian Relief Flour” arrived in Belgium in March 1915 through the relief campaign “The Miller’s Belgian Relief Movement 1914-15” from the Northwestern Miller, the magazine of American millers in Minneapolis [3].

Wheatland Roller Mill Co. early 1900. Image source: internet
Wall painting in downtown Wheatland, Wyoming, executed by “Platte County Art Guild” in 2017. Image source: internet

In the fall of 1914, the people of the state of Wyoming raised money for the needy Belgian population. To contribute to the Miller’s Belgian Relief Movement flour was purchased from the Wheatland Roller Mill Co., as reported in the relief effort Report.

The flour mill existed from 1897 to 1931 [4]. The town of Wheatland commemorates the history of the mill to this day with a mural in the city center, applied in 2017 by the “Platte County Art Guild”.

The steamer “South Point” transported a load of 6200 tons of relief goods for a value of $ 500,000 from Philadelphia to Rotterdam. The ship arrived safely in the port of Rotterdam on 27 February 1915, where the sacks of flour were immediately loaded on inland vessels and shipped to Belgian ports. A number of barges sailed to Antwerp; hence the flour would be distributed to Oppuurs.

“Cooking soup with Oppuers stoker for aid and food for school children and refugees during WWI.” History of Oppuurs 1311-2003
The flour sack “Thanks from Oppuers” is rimmed with a wide hem

Empty sacks will have been handed over to the Annonciaden Sisters’ Monastery School in Oppuurs, where the schoolgirls processed the flour sacks in class as part of their needle training.

Detail embroidery: the coat of arms of Oppuers flanked by two lions, below a buttonhole

 

 

 

 

 

On the unprinted side of the flour sack, first a design would have been made and the pattern drawn, in some places you can still see blue lines on the canvas. The embroidery is meticulously executed, as well as the wide lace border, see the appendix with the complete inventory of the flour sack.

 

Remarkable are:

Detail embroidery “België 1915” (Belgium 1915)
  • The three buttonholes
  • The year “1915” as the year of decoration, instead of a timeline 1914-1915
  • Europeana Collections 1914-1918 mentions the contribution of Henri Vertongen including the image of a correspondingly decorated flour sack with “Thanks from Puers”. See my blog of January 23, 2020.
Jeanne and Jozef De keersmaecker-Verbruggen

My warm thanks go to Jozef De keersmaecker and his wife Jeanne Verbruggen. She is the granddaughter of Rosalie Verbruggen-Van Der Linden and has always known her grandmother as an independent, decisive woman. Jeanne’s aunts, who became nuns as adults, embroidered the dyptich of flour sacks with the mills when they were schoolgirls.
Who knows they and the other sisters Verbruggen may also have worked on the two flour sacks preserved by their brother Frans.

ADDITION November 5,  2021

In the collection of the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University, the Ben S. Allen Collection contains a flour sack “Belgian Relief Flour Pillsbury Flour Mills“, donated by the local Oppuers relief committee. The members of the committee have placed their signatures under the photos of King Albert I and Queen Elisabeth.

Detail of the signatures, embroidered, flour sack relief committee Oppuers/Pillsbury Flour Mills; Coll. HIA
Detail of the lion, embroidered, flour sack relief committee Oppuers/Pillsbury Flour Mills; Coll. HIA

Between them an embroidered lion is staring a bit dejectedly. The US and Belgium flags and the Oppuers coat of arms are embroidered; a wide strip of lace forms the edge decoration. ‘M.Mees’ is the signature of the embroiderer. Maria Josepha Isabella Mees ( Oppuurs 1901.02.08 – Beerse 1976.12.06) was 14 years old when in 1915 she applied the decorations for the relief committee to the flour sack. She was the daughter of the municipal teacher Jan Mees and Maria Van Assche. Later Maria Mees married Dirk Vancoppenolle (Essen 1895.05.20 – Beerse 1978.08.21); he was a doctor in Germanic philology, a teacher at the Royal Athenaeum.

Evelyn McMillan reports about Benjamin S. Allen: “he was a Stanford University graduate, a friend of Hoover’s, an American journalist based in London, and helpful in writing about the situation in Belgium during the war to tell the world what was going on and what was needed”. Writing for the Associated Press, Allen was CRB delegate from October 1914 until the end of CRB’s operations.

Flour sack (recto) donated by members of the local relief committee Oppuers. (Belgian Relief Flour Pillsbury Flour Mills Co.) Signatures of Lauwers, M. Verbruggen, J. Mees, Theyskens, J. Van Assche, Fr. Van Damme, E. Willocx, J. Slachmuylders, H. Stevens, J. Hulsbosch. Embroiderer “M. (Maria) Mees”. Coll. Hoover Institution Archives, Benjamin S. Allen collection. Photo: EMcM through HIA staff

The members of the Oppuers relief committee were: Frans van Damme, Schepene on-duty Mayor (chairman); Jan Mees, Schepene; E. Lauwers; J. Slachmuylders; J. Hulsbosch; H. Stevens; Ed. Willocx; Alberie Theyskens, curate in Oppuers, (secretary treasurer); Joseph Van Assche, rentier; Modeste Verbruggen, miller.

Flour sack (verso) relief committee Oppuers, Belgian Relief Flour Pillsbury Flour Mills Co. Minneapolis, Minn. Coll. HIA. Photo: EMcM through HIA staff

Thanks to:
– Evelyn McMillan for making the flour sack photos available in the Ben S. Allen Collection at HIA;
– the members of the Facebook group Lizerne Trench Art (LTA), Jorn van Bulck and Ingo Luypaert, for their help in identifying the names of the Oppuers relief committee;
– Bart Palmans of Heverstam, Historical Collecting Circle Sint-Amands;
– Hubert Bovens, Wilsele, for the search for biographical information;
– Patricia Quaghebeur of KADOC, Louvain, for the biographical details of Sister Edmond/Irena Verbruggen.

Footnotes:

[1] The decorated flour sacks “Dank van Oppuers” and “Koene Held” have been on display to the public at Heemkundige Verzamelkring (“Historical Collecting Circle”) Sint-Amands HeverStam during the exhibition “The face of the Great War” in 2018

[2] The history of the mill of Oppuurs is described in the Molendatabase.EU: see the collection “Lost Belgian Mills”

[3] See also my blog / article “A Famous Flemish Flour Sack in The Land of Nevele” of 25 October 2018

[4] More about the history of Wheatland Roller Mill Co. in the book by Starley Talbott, Platte County. Images of America. Charleston SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2009

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Christmas 1914-1917

1914

St-Josse-ten-Noode received the first sacks of flour from America on December 25 and 26: 200 sacks of flour, of which 176 sacks of flour of 64 kg to be distributed to the bakeries during the Christmas season: ‘L’ ALIMENTATION’. – La commune de St-Josse-ten-Noode, a reçu les 25 et 26 courant, 200 sacs de farine; 176 sacs ont été réparti entre les boulangers de la commune et 24 sacs ont été remis à l’Œuvre de l’alimentation de la commune. Chaque sac était de 64 kilos. (“FOOD’. – The municipality of St-Josse-ten-Noode, received the 25th and 26th, 200 sacks of flour; 176 sacks were distributed among the bakers of the commune and 24 sacks were given to l’Œuvre de l’alimentation of the commune. Each sack was 64 kilos (Le Bruxellois, December 30, 1914).

Le Temps Présent
The cover photo of the Christmas issue of the Belgian illustrated magazine Le Temps Présent shows a toddler, a hungry girl, taking a bite of a thick sandwich. It would turn out to be an iconic photo. The photo of the eating mite is still used to this day as a representation of food aid to Belgium during the Great War.

“”Heureux Age”: A small refugee in Dixmude does not spoil her appetite because of the war.” Meaningful photo on the cover of the Christmas issue 1914 of the Brussels magazine “Le Temps Présent”, December 25, 1914

The Chicago Evening Post
The photo of the girl had already appeared in the American newspaper The Chicago Evening Post. On Tuesday, November 24, 1914, close to Thanksgiving Day, it appeared on the front page of the Chicago newspaper: “Belgian Mite Gets First Bite in 2 Days“.
The photographer’s identity is revealed: “Doubleday-Page Photo”, he worked for Doubleday-Page & Company, New York City. [1]

Tuesday November 24, 1914, The Chicago Evening Post “Belgian Mite, Belgian orphan in Holland”. Photo: Doubleday-Page Photo

The caption contained an appeal from the newspaper to give money for food aid to Belgium. “Picture taken in Holland shows Belgian orphan eating her first mouthful of food after wandering two days alone and hungry. It is such waifs as this The Post’s flour fund will aid. Send your check today.”

War Bread
The American Edward Eyre Hunt (1885-1953), author of the book War Bread, published about his life in Belgium when he worked in the province of Antwerp for the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB).

“Refugee girl”, image on the frontispiece of “War Bread” by Edward E. Hunt, 1916

In his book Hunt uses the girl’s photo (with the simple caption “War Bread”) on the frontispiece: the mite, enjoying a big sandwich.

Hunt reports on the decorating of flour sacks by ladies in Antwerp. The caption under the photograph of six decorated flour sacks is: FLOUR SACKS. Embroidered and painted by the Belgians as souvenirs for the Americans. Through my research of decorated flour sacks from WWI, I can add that the Belgians made the souvenirs not only for the Americans, but also for themselves.

 

 

Decorated flour sacks from Antwerp, donated to Edward E. Hunt. Image in War Bread, 1916
“Refugee Girl in Breda”, drawing in black chalk by Louis Ketels, 1917. Coll. Museum Plantin-Moretus; photo from book Diane De Keyzer

Nieuwe meesters, magere tijden
The Print Room of the Museum Plantin-Moretus  in Antwerp keeps a drawing in black chalk by the Belgian artist Louis Ketels, dated September 4, 1917, entitled Refugee Girl in Breda.
A printout of the drawing with caption War Child, Child of the Account can be found on page 50 in Diane de Keyzer’s book Nieuwe meesters, magere tijden (New Masters, Lean Times), 2013.

The photo of the refugee girl has been copied exactly in mirror image by Louis Ketels!

The “Belgian Mite ” on the back cover of Jeffrey B. Miller’s “WWI Crusaders”, 2018

A hundred years later, the image of the Belgian mite shows up again. The books WWI Crusaders (2018) and Yanks behind the Lines (2020) were published by author Jeffrey B. Miller from Denver, Colorado. The image of the refugee girl decorates the cover of both books. The author is grandson of Erica Bunge (1892-1986) from Antwerp, Belgium, who married CRB employee Milton M. Brown (1893-1979) from Cincinnati, Ohio. Miller describes the love story of his grandparents and the intense life of the young men and women who worked for the CRB from August 1914 to May 1917.

Looking at the photos, reading the captions, I wonder: was she a Belgian refugee in Breda, Holland or was she in Dixmude, Belgium? Was she an orphan? Has this really been her first bite in two days?

1915

The cover photo of L’Evénément Illustré shows a painting by Belgian artist Gaston Haustraete.

Gaston Haustraete: ‘Noël 1915. Vision…’, L’ Evénément Illustré, December 25, 1915
Gaston Haustrate, Portrait, flour sack Belgian Relief Flour, 1915, Moulckers Collection, St. Edwards University, Austin, Tx, USA

I became acquainted with Haustraete (Everbeek, 1878 – Ixelles, 1949) through his painted flour sack from Thompson Milling Co., included in the Moulckers Collection, St. Edwards University, Austin, Texas, USA. The child’s portrait on the flour sack shows a striking resemblance to the child’s portrait on the Christmas cover. In both paintings the child holds something in his right fist, on the cover photo it looks like a toy soldier, symbol for father, fighting at the front? The red flowers on the flour sack symbolize hope. The story of the flour sack is described in my (Dutch) blog of November 30, 2018 about the Moulckers Collection.

 

 

Advertisement in La Belgique, December 23, 1915

 

December call in the newspaper: “Go look at the American Sacks. Works made by workers. 105, rue Neuve, Brussels”.

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In Anderlecht, near Brussels, an exhibition of art and crafts opened in December 1915 in the veterinary school, where works of art could be obtained through a raffle. The proceeds of the fundraising were intended for the local relief commission.

Exhibition poster, Anderlecht commune. L’ Evénément Illustré, January 1, 1916
Collar made of flour sack, ‘Bébé, Anderlecht 1914-1915. Collection HHPLM

I suspect that decorated flour sacks would have been amongst the displayed artworks. The institute of the Sœurs de Notre Dame, a professional school for girls, was established in Anderlecht. They have decorated a lot of flour sacks in class during their lessons. The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa owns dozens of pieces of the students from Anderlecht.

 

Evariste Carpentier, painted flour sack Preston Milling Co., Noël 1915, postcard, Liège

Evariste Carpentier (Kuurne, 1845 – Liège, 1922) painted a flour sack from Preston Milling Co., Preston, Idaho, USA. As a leading painter and former director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Liège, Carpentier’s Christmas painting was photographed. The image was reproduced as a postcard, of which copies were sold for charity: the soup distribution in Liège. The postcards are still sought-after collectables.

During the Christmas and New Year period, the former students of the Academy in Liège organized the 15th Salon of Art and Applied Art, the proceeds of which were intended for, among other things, the “Solidarité Artistique”. The fund provided discreet assistance to the many poor artists who were affected by the war and occupation conditions. The program booklet contains various embroidery items from the ladies Irma Terhell and Nina Kepenne-Delheid, but I cannot tell whether they were decorated flour sacks.

 

 

 

 

 

1916

Women and young children around the Christmas tree make up the painting on the cover of the Christmas edition.

“The Christmas Tree”, L’Evénément Illustré, December 23, 1916

“C’est la fête intime de la famille, qui réunit tous les cœurs en une douce communion de pensées, de souvenirs et de joies. (It is the intimate celebration of the family, which unites all hearts in a sweet communion of thoughts, memories and joy).”

1917

In London, in the great hall of the Criterion building, an elite party gathered to attend a thé concert, organized by an extensive ladies’ committee, for the “Noël des Petits pauvres d ‘Anvers” (Christmas of the Little Poor of Antwerp). The concert started with an old dance of dancers in classical costumes, then some soloists sang beautiful songs. The following interlude included the sale by auction of a series of embroidered flour sacks. The auction raised 40 pounds.

La Métropole d’Anvers, December 25, 1917

Georges Desplas, who was mentioned on the program with the pompous title of “official speaker of the Belgian army”, … received much applause after singing his army songs. With astonishing energy, he acted as an auctioneer, improvising, who auctioned off decorated, in Belgium, embroidered flour sacks from WWI. He raised nearly forty pounds, which will be transferred to charity; the result of his wordsmithing…

At the end of 1916 and the end of 1917, the Belgian newspapers reported few articles about decorated flour sacks. The population suffered greatly from food, clothing and fuel shortages and ice-cold winters.

 

[1] ‘Doubleday-Page Photo’:
Note that the name Page refers to Walter Hines Page (Cary, North Carolina, 15.08.1855 – Pinehurst, North Carolina, 21.12.1918), the United States ambassador to the United Kingdom during WWI. Page had a distinguished career as a journalist and publisher before being appointed Ambassador in London by President Wilson in March 1913. Page was a partner of Doubleday, Page & Company, a major book publisher in New York City, from 1900-1913.

 

 

 

 

 

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The emotions of the flour sack

In June 2019 I did research in the Ypres Salient, Belgium.
The Friends of the In Flanders Fields Museum published this interview in VIFF Magazine no. 70, 2019-3:

“Last summer, artist and researcher Annelien van Kempen, hailing from Voorburg in the Netherlands, did research on the collection of the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres, focusing on the decorated flour sacks of Herbert Hoovers Commission for Relief in Belgium with support of the Koen Koch Foundation.
The Koen Koch Foundation raises funds through membership fees and donations to the Friends of the In Flanders Fields Museum to support students and trainees with their studies on WWI in the Ypres Salient or on the IFFM Collection.

The sacks of flour from the USA and Canada were intended as food aid to occupied Belgium in World War I. Generally, you do not assign a backbone or feelings to a flour sack. The Belgian seamstresses, embroiderers, lace workers and painters who artfully worked on the sacks, however, testified to enthusiasm, creativity and ingenuity, as well as patriotism and deep gratitude towards the generous donors. The IFFM already houses a number of masterpieces, which further fueled Annelien van Kempen’s passion for her research subject.”

Interview and photos by Marc Dejonckheere.

You can read the interview here.

My article ” Flour sacks. The art of charity” has been published in the 2020 Yearbook of the In Flanders Fields Museum, Ypres. In the article I describe my discoveries and put Ypres’ collection of flour sacks in their historical context.  Please read my blog here.

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Article in Patakon

Embroidered flour sacks in WW I: Nice souvenirs, serve well as gifts; the profits are worth talking about.
The relic of a heroic people.

My first article about the WW I decorated flour sacks has been published in print!
23 pages with text, photos and a selective bibliography can be found in the September 2019 issue of Patakon, the bakery heritage magazine of the Furnes Bakery Museum.

Summary

The article in Patakon is putting the Furnes Bakery Museum WWI flour sacks in their historical context. Through historical newspaper reports and photographs I broaden and deepen the Belgian perspective on the remembrance culture of the decorated “American” flour sacks.

I present 15 newspaper reports and 8 images from illustrated magazines, published between 1914 and 1918, with flour sacks related quotes.

Ferdine de Wachter is showing proudly her embroidered and decorated flour sack, 1915. Photo courtesy of Rumesta History Circle.

Another 7 images illustrate the relief efforts of women in occupied Belgium, including Madame Vandervelde whose campaign for food aid in the USA resulted in flour sacks, printed with the name of her own Madame Vandervelde Fund.

Embroiderer Ferdine De Wachter, at the age of 18, is proudly standing next to her embroidered flour sack.

My research of the Furnes Bakery Museum flour sack collection led to the discovery of several remarkable details. The detection of similar flour sacks in other collections led to new conclusions through comparative research with the three Furnes decorated flour sacks. In addition, I delved into historical information about the origin of the flour sacks.

These flour sacks are souvenirs that the Furnes Bakery Museum is right to store with care and display with pride.
The article was created in collaboration with Ina Ruckebusch, scientific staff member/collection manager.

The article originally appeared in the Dutch language.
You can read its English translation here.

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Transformation of flour sacks with embroidery, needlework and lace

The aim of my research is, among other things, to unravel the mythical history of the origin of the decorated flour sacks in WWI. Decorated flour sacks in WWI are both embroidered, decorated with needlework and with lace, as though they were painted by artists. Flour sacks have been transformed into clothing.
Who had the idea of reusing the sacks and where and when did that start? Was it a Belgian initiative or did it happen on American suggestion?
To find answers to my questions, I systematically went through a number of Belgian newspapers and illustrated magazines from the end of 1914, beginning of 1915; these have been digitized and are available online.
I had already found some American publications before and combined them with the information from Belgium.
In my first of a series of four blogs, I have discussed the origin of reusing the flour sacks as clothing.

Decorated flour sack embroidered by Germaine Joly, École Moyenne, Saint-Gilles, Bruxelles. Fig. “From Aid to Art”, San Francisco Folk Art Museum, 1987, Hoover Institution Library & Archives Collection, Stanford University, USA.

This second blog discusses the:
Transformation of flour sacks with embroidery, needlework and lace into decorated flour sacks. Belgian sources 1915.
Below are seven Belgian primary sources from 1915 about the origin of the decorated flour sacks.

1) March 1915: “De Kempenaar, Turnhout” (province of Antwerp)

The earliest source discovered until now is a message in the newspaper “De Kempenaar” with a description of the decoration of flour sacks with embroidery, needlework and lace. In ornate words, the decorated flour sacks gave the opportunity for a patriotic “cri-de-coeur” from a journalist in Turnhout, province of Antwerp, under the headline: “The Germans in De Kempen”:
“While all sorts of necessities are coming from the billion-dollar country to help the Belgian population in pressure and distress, our feminine side has sought and found a means of expressing deep gratitude to the Americans with as much fine tact as generosity.
And look at the sacks in which American flour is sent to us and some of which bear the name of the world-famous billionaire Rockefeller, they have displayed their art in beautiful needle and embroidery, on which they picture the maps of Belgium, the province of Antwerp, flowers and figures have been worked out and embroidered, sometimes trimmed with fine real Turnhout edges and which will soon elicit an exclamations of astonishment and admiration in the new world, yes maybe will be sold at the price of hundreds or thousands of dollars.
After all, is it a memento of that small but brave nation, of those heroic Belgians who have fulfilled their patriotic duty so honorably and gloriously? … Is it the work of the mothers, of the sisters of those admirable soldiers, who now want to send a small but meaningful memento with their own art and own manual labor to the protectors of our people and our nation that will be received and preserved there in the large families like the relic of a heroic people, fighting for their rights, their freedom and independence??…”.
(De Kempenaar, March 21, 1915)

2) March 1915: “La farine d’Amérique”

Photo of shop window in L’Actualité Illustrée, March 27, 1915

The second source is a photo in L’Actualité Illustrée of March 27, 1915. The photo with caption “La farine d’Amérique” (“The flour of America”) shows the shop window in which empty flour sacks are displayed. What does this photo reveal?
– the window of a bread bakery that advertises its “hygiène et propreté” and “pétrissage mécanique” (“hygiene and cleanliness” and “mechanical kneading”)
– the presentation of a series of empty flour sacks and many American flags, with a framed, perhaps embroidered flour sack in the center at the top.
All this as proof of the enthusiasm for the reception of the flour, the quality of the bread baked by it, the gratitude to “America” and a gesture of Belgian patriotism including indirect reproach to the German occupier.

3) April 1915: Diary “J. v. d. K”

Embroidery and framed pictures of the Belgian princess and princes by a schoolgirl from Anderlecht, Brussels, 1915. Fig. Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, Iowa, USA.

The diary of “J.v.d.K.” is an interesting source about embroidery at school. In her diary the girl noted:
“Le 26 avril -1915…Mère brode a ma place des sacs d’Am…
Le 28 avril – 1915…A l’école nous brodons les sac de farine am… Rien de nouveau sous le soleil (chanson de ma jeunesse)…”(Lucien Karhausen, Le Cahier Perdu…p 103, 104)

Translation:
“April 26, 1915: … Mother embroiders Am sacks in my place…
April 28, 1915: … At school we embroider the am flour sacks … Nothing new under the sun (song of my youth) …”.
The girls were embroidering at (sewing) schools. They must have been bored at times, perhaps this is why this girl’s mother had put in the stitches for her. As the embroidery was performed as part of their education, the girls received no remuneration for their work.

De Belgische Standaard, May 7, 1915

4) May 1915: A letter from Opwijck (province of Flemish Brabant)
“OPWIJCK. From a few letters….
We are still well supplied with food: America takes care of everything. Long live America! We get wholemeal flour and flour every week and if we use a bit of farm flour, we eat the tastiest bread; …
We now show our gratitude to our benefactors, embroider empty flour sacks with tricolor drawings and inscription: “The grateful Opwijck to the United States”, and others. I make a ”milieu-de-table” and so everyone contributes something.
This is how people work in all villages and it seems that our work is being sold for dollars to the billionaires who want souvenirs of deeply ravaged Belgium. The proceeds are for us...”
(De Belgische Standaard (The Belgian Standard), May 7th, 1915).

5) May 1915: “Sale of American sacks”, Brussels

Het Vlaamsche Nieuws, Saturday May 29, 1915

There were reports in the newspaper about the sale of empty flour sacks.
“Sale of American sacks. – The sacks in which the flour of America comes to us have been sold for some time to the benefit of the “Comité National de Secours et d’Alimentation”. The sales take place on Avenue Anspach (Brussels), in the offices where the Red Star Line used to be located. The first sales days gave a result which no one expected. The sacks were then handed over to young girls who manufacture all kinds of very beautiful things from them, all kinds of war souvenirs or expressions of gratitude towards generous America that sent us those sacks filled with the flour that saved us from famine.” Het Vlaamsche Nieuws (Flemish News), May 29th, 1915)

KBR: Postcard online
The shop window of the Red Star Line in ”l’Avenue Anspach”, Brussels. Fig. Exhibition War & Food, Evere, 2016

A postcard in the collection of the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR) in Brussels shows the window of said building on the Avenue Anspach.

This image was on display at the “Food & War” exhibition “A culinary history of the Great War” in Brussels Museum of the Mill and Food in Evere from October 2015-August 2016. When the photo was taken is not mentioned, my estimate would be summer 1915. The shop window is filled with decorated flour sacks: “Sacs de farine Américains brodés et transformés vendus au Profit des Orphelins de la Guerre. (Embroidered and processed American flour sacks sold for the benefit of War Orphans) Marcovici editor, Bruxelles, 27, Av. Stephanie.” The head of the saleswoman is visible in the center of the image, next to the flour sack “Washington Flour”.

6) August 1915: Tribute book Ghent
The 1915 Tribute book of the city of Ghent expressed gratitude to a local committee of ladies with the following text:
“Secours Discret, Section D: Aide et protection aux brodeuses (Œuvres des Sacs Américains). Cette section dont s’occupent spécialement:
Mesdames Baronne de Crombrugge, J. Feyerick, E. de Hemptinne, Vande Putte.
A pris l’initiative de transformer en coussins brodés et autres ouvrages artistiques, les sacs à farine (aux marques de fabriques originales) reçus de l’Amérique.
Son siège est situé Marché aux Oiseaux, dans les magasins de M. Robert, mis gracieusement à la disposition de la section.
La vente se fait au profit du Comité Provincial de Secours et l’entreprise assure un salaire à un certain nombre d’ouvrières.”[1]

Translation:
(“Discrete Aid, Section D: Aid and Protection for Embroiderers (Work of American Sacks). This committee, which consists in particular of:
The ladies Baronne de Crombrugge, J. Feyerick, E. de Hemptinne, Vande Putte,
took the initiative to transform the flour sacks (with the marks of original factories) received from America into embroidered cushions and other artistic works.
Its headquarters are located at Marché aux Oiseaux, in Mr. Robert’s stores, which are made available to the section free of charge.
The sale is for the benefit of the Provincial Committee of Relief and the committee provides a salary to a certain number of workers.”)

Decorated flour sack, embroidered in Ghent, 1915. Collection and image: Frankie van Rossem

7) November 1915: “Nice memories, very useful as a gift”, Ghent

The Ghent committee thus identified working on flour sacks as providing employment to unemployed embroiderers and creating sales for charities such as those benefiting orphans and other war victims. Making objects to serve as Saint Nicolas (a local holiday akin to Christmas) gifts turned out to be important! Making gifts for American relief workers was not the aim … In November 1915 we read this announcement in several newspapers:

“The committee of American flour sacks has decided, with the prospect of St. Nicholas gifts, to sell a whole new series, beautifully embroidered sacks and a multitude of items made by means of sacks originating from the United States. Each of these items carries an American factory brand, artfully embroidered! A They are nice memories, very useful as a gift; what is more, the purchase of each of these objects is good work since the proceeds of the sale serve to provide for the maintenance of numerous workers and to increase the income of the “Work of the War Orphans. The sale will start on November 30.” (De Gentenaar. De landwacht, De kleine patriot. (The Land Guard, The Little Patriot, November 17, 1915)) [2]

Conclusion

Photo collage from the delivery of flour to the distribution of bread. Photo SA Phototypie Belge, Collection In Flanders Fields Museum, Ypres

Belgian women have taken the initiative with their commercial spirit to transform empty flour sacks into decorated flour sacks. In the spirit of North American donations, the flour sacks have indeed been reused, but in a surprisingly inventive manner. The approach of the Americans: “utility and thrift” – reusing flour sacks for making underwear and towels – has been deviated from due to Belgian generosity and the desire to create beauty, to make goods that people would like to buy as gifts and souvenirs.

Photo in the magazine “Le Temps Présent”, March 31, 1915

Even empty and unprocessed, the flour sacks with logos from American and Canadian flour mills and texts from the donating people were so beautiful that they formed an attractive souvenir. Together with beautiful cushions, tea cozies, hangers, table runners, sacks decorated with colorful embroidery, elegant needlework and lace, the flour sacks generously filled the Belgian shop windows, sales exhibitions and raffles.

The proceeds were intended for charity. The two underlying motifs for the Belgian inhabitants were
– to provide employment and
– to raise money through sales to help war victims.
Donating the decorated flour sacks as souvenirs, memories of the war, and out of gratitude for food relief was the selling point, it contributed to getting financial support from the wealthy circles in Belgium and the “billionaires” in America.

 

[1] Ville de Gand, Œuvres de Philanthropie…1915,  p. 73, 74
[2] Four newspapers: De Gentenaar. De landwacht. De kleine patriot; Het Volk. Christen Werkmansblad; Vooruit. Socialistisch Dagblad; Journal de Gand, all published November 17th, 1915

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Reusing Flour Bags as Clothing

Flour sack “ACME”, Thornton & Chester Milling Co., Buffalo, NY, with embroidery and needlework “Merci aux Américains” by “École Morichar de Saint-Gilles”, 1915; Fig. “From Aid to Art”, San Francisco Folk Art Museum, 1987. Coll. HILA.

One of the goals of my research is to unravel the mythical history of the origins of the decorated Flour Bags in WWI. Decorated Flour Bags in WWI have been embroidered, decorated with needlework, with lace, as well as painted on by artists. Flour Bags have been transformed into clothing.

Who had the idea of reusing these bags? Where and when did that start? Was it a Belgian initiative or was it due to strong American suggestions?

Belgian newspapers and magazines
To find answers to my questions, I systematically went through a number of Belgian newspapers and illustrated magazines from the end of 1914, beginning of 1915; these have been digitized and are online.

I had already found some American publications and combined them with the Belgian information.

Color photo in “1914 ILLUSTRÉ, no. 22, February 1915”: Flour arrives in Brussels

I have split my analysis and findings into four parts:

  1. Reuse of Flour Bags into clothing.
  2. Transformation of Flour Bags with embroidery, needlework and lace into decorated Flour Bags, Belgian primary sources, see blog May 26, 2019
  3. Transformation of Flour Bags into painted decorated Flour Bags, Belgian primary sources, see blog September 9, 2020 and blog September 11, 2020.
  4. Transformation of Flour Bags into decorated Flour Bags, American primary sources.

Reusing Flour Sacks as clothing

Flour sack collection Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum: clothes made in Belgium from American and Canadian flour sacks, 1915-1916.
Photo-collage, Annelien van Kempen, 2022

In this blog I will discuss the origin of the reuse of Flour Bags as clothing. Two primary sources bear witness to this.

1) January 1915: Madame Lalla Vandervelde

Lalla Vandervelde-Speyer, portrait in “The Spell of Belgium” by Isabel Anderson. Foto: Mathilde Weil, Philadelphia

A source with information I found is an article in a Belgian newspaper that was published abroad, about Madame Vandervelde.. Her maiden name was Charlotte “Lalla” Speyer, British by birth and from German parents, she was married in 1901 to her second husband, the Belgian Minister of State, Emile Vandervelde. The couple divorced some years after WWI. [1]

Article in “Le XXe siècle: journal d’union et d’action catholique” of January 16, 1915

Since October 1914, Madame Vandervelde had been in the United States to ask for help for the Belgian population in need. In Buffalo, New York, she gave a lecture and received 10,000 bags of flour as a gift. The bags were made of fine cotton and intended for reuse.

La propagande pro-belge aux États-Unis.
‘Madame Vandervelde, la femme du Ministre d’Etat, est aux États-Unis depuis plus de trois mois. Elle y a donné et y donne sur la Belgique et les horreurs, dont elle a été victime, une série de conférences qui ont le plus grand succès et dans lesquelles on acclame la Belgique et les Belges. …..
A Buffalo, des industriels lui ont offert un bâteau chargé de 10.000 sacs de farine, – sacs confectionnés en fine toile et en étoffe, afin qu’ils puissent servir par la suite et être transformés en vêtements et en linges pour les habitants. …

Translation: “In Buffalo, manufacturers have donated to her a ship with 10,000 bags of flour – bags made of fine canvas and cloth, so that these can afterwards be used and transformed into clothing and towels for the inhabitants…. “

The Committee in Buffalo had the flour bags printed with the text “War Relief Donation Flour from Madame Vandervelde Fund”. Lalla Vandervelde did not set up a fund herself. The donations she received were handed over to the Belgian Relief Fund in the US. In Belgian collections there are flour bags with the original “Madame Vandervelde Fund” prints:

Unprocessed flour sack Madame Vandervelde Fund.  Image: Imprimerie Société Anonyme Belge de Phototypie (Collection IFFM)

a) the unprocessed Flour Bag on a photo of a Flour Bags-collage, provided to me by the In Flanders Fields Museum (IFFM), Ypres, with the text: “War Relief Donation Flour from Madame Vandervelde Fund – Belgian Relief Fund, Buffalo, N.Y. U.S.A. 49 Lbs.”[2]

Decorated flour sack “Madame Vandervelde Fund”, collection IFFM, Ypres

 

 

b) the decorated Flour Bag, which I see online at the ‘Ieperse Collecties’ (Ypres Collections). Object number IFF 003008 is an “Embroidered and painted Flour Bag attached on a stretcher with the text “War Relief Donation – Flour 1914-1915 – from Madame Vandervelde Fund “. At the top the portrait of Emile Vandervelde, Minister of State of Belgium.”

 

Decorated flour bag “War Relief Donation Flour from Madame Vandervelde Fund”, 1914-1915-1916. The embroidery is in three parts; left American shield with eagle; On the right the Belgian coat of arms; In the middle a small Belgian Congo coat of arms; In the four corners wheat stalks and corn flowers. Edge of machine made lace. The embroiderer was Mlle. Honorma Lambert, Lillois (Nivelles). Courtesy Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Museum No. 62.4.446. Photo: E. McMillan

2) November 1914: Mr. William C. Edgar

The earliest American source on the reuse of Flour Bags as clothing comes from Mr. William C. Edgar, editor-in-chief of the American newspaper “The Northwestern Miller” in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On November 4, 1914, he started the aid campaign “The Miller’s Relief Movement”. [3] The newspaper, a trade magazine for grain millers, made a request to subscribers and advertisers, in particular the flour mills, to donate flour for Belgium’s aid. The quality of the flour was specified in detail and the packaging had to meet the following conditions: cotton bags, sturdy for transport, dimensions suitable for handling by one person and last but not least “suitable for reuse“:

“Instructions were issued at the same time for packing the flour. These stipulated that a strong forty-nine pound cotton sack be used. This was for three reasons: the size of the package would be convenient for individual handling in the ultimate distribution; the use of cotton would, to a certain extent, help the then depressed cotton market, and finally and most important, after the flour was eaten, the empty cotton sack could be used by the housewife for an undergarment, the package thus providing both food and clothing. ‘(Final Report: The Miller’s Belgian Relief Movement 1914-1915, p. 9). [4]

Tradition

Undergarment made from Flour Bag. Fig.: Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum, Iowa, USA

The motive for reuse was widely used among the American female population. Reuse of cotton bags had already been established for decades and earlier. Cotton was a product of the country, bags were usable pieces of cotton. It provided the sparing housewife with simple items of clothing for free or for a low price. After good washing, the seamstresses cut the pattern of the clothes out of the bags and mainly made undergarments for their own family. After the First World War, the reuse of cotton bags developed further in the US from the 1920s.

Lou Hoover poses in a cotton evening gown to encourage women to wear cotton clothing, in particular evening gowns (around 1930); Fig. firstladies.org

During the depression in the 1930s, the Americans protected their distressed cotton industry, reusing cotton bags was a sign of frugality and also a patriotic duty. Product development and marketing efforts by bag suppliers resulted in washable prints, washable labels and finally colorful, fashionable and hip prints on the bags. In the 40s and 50s it was particularly fashionable to wear garments made from bags. A true “Feedsack” cult prevailed among rural women to sew clothes from used cotton bags that had served as packages of chicken feed, flour, sugar and rice for the entire family. [5]

Sewing working room in Namur. Photo in ‘L’ événement Illustré: L’Ouvroir des Dames Namuroises’, April 1915, no. 9
Man’s jersey made from Flour Bag. Coll.: HHPLM

No Belgian, but an American source
There are sewing workshops who have made functional underwear, aprons and jackets with recycled flour bags, usually for children, according to the American writer Charlotte Kellogg who stayed in Belgium from July to November 1916.

Remarkably, I don’t know any Belgian written source about sewing workshops reusing the flour bags for clothing. However, there are photos on which young girls can be seen, dressed in attractive aprons and dresses, outerwear on which proudly the brand name of the mill and the inscriptions of the aid organizations are shown.
In my research I have not yet come across flour sack clothes in any Belgian collection. Well in two American: a few dozens of pieces of underwear, aprons, a jersey and pants in the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Museum (HHPLM), a few pieces of embellished children’s clothing in the Hoover Institution Library Archives (HILA).

In Heverlee, 80 children, mostly girls from around 4 to 6 years old, were photographed, dressed in Flour Sacks with the “American Commission” logo.

Image in Europeana Collections (estimated 1915)

Mr. Robert Bruyninckx shared this black and white photo of 14 × 9 cm in the Europeana Collections under the title: “Group photo with children dressed in clothes made from bags of the American Commission for Relief in Belgium.”

Description: “Group photo with Jeanne Caterine Charleer (born in Heverlee on August 17, 1910), top row, 7th from the right. Children dressed in clothes made from bags of the American Commission for Relief, with the American flag in the background. The photo is a family piece. Jeanne Caterine Charleer was the mother of Robert Bruyninckx.”[6]

Girl in Flour Bag dress from California. Photo: HILA

A girl was photographed in a “Belgian” dress with the “Sperry Flour” logo from California.

Conclusion
Although I have only found two primary sources, I nevertheless come to the conclusion about the origin of the reuse of Flour Bags as clothing: this practice was taken up in Belgium at the strong suggestions of American relief workers.
The Flour Bags were special to the Belgians, they made, apart from undergarments, also nice dresses for their children.

 

[1] Gubin, Eliane, Dictionnaire des femmes belges: XIXe et XXe siècle, p. 510-512; gw.geneanet.org: “Charlotte Hélène Frédérique Marie Speyer”

[2] Delmarcel, Guy, Pride of Niagara. Best Winter Wheat. Amerikaanse Meelzakken als textiele getuigen van Wereldoorlog I. Brussel, Jubelpark: Bulletin van de Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis (‘American flour sacks as textile witnesses of World War I’. Brussels, Cinquantenaire: Bulletin of the Royal Museums of Art and History), deel 84, 2013, p. 97-126

[3] See also my blog: “A Celebrity Flemish Flour Bag in The Land of Nevele” of October 25, 2018

[4] The Millers ’Belgian Relief Movement 1914-15 conducted by The Northwestern Miller. Final Report of its Director William C. Edgar, Editor of the Northwestern Miller, MCMXV

[5] Three sources to continue reading about ‘Feed Sacks’:
– Linzee Kull McCray, Feed Sacks, The Colourful History of a Frugal Fabric, 2016/2019;
– Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, For a few sacks more, online exhibition Textile Research Centre, Leiden, 2018
– Marian Ann J. Montgomery, Cotton and Thrift. Feed Sacks and the Fabric of American Households, 2019

[6] The group photo with the children in Heverlee in clothing from bags with the logo ‘American Commission’ is printed in the article by Ina Ruckebusch: ‘Belgische voedselschaarste en Amerikaanse voedselhulp tijdens WOI’ in: Patakon, tijdschrift voor bakerfgoed, (Belgian food scarcity and American food aid during WWI’ in: Patakon, Magazine about bakery heritage) 5 nr. 1 (2014) , p. 29.

 

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From Lewis Richards via Berthe Smedt to Antoine Springael

A glimpse into my day of research on Thursday, March 13, 2019.
I am looking for connections in Brussels of Lewis Richards, member of the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB).

Lewis Richards, CRB member from 1915-1919. Image: MSU Archives website

Richards came from Michigan, USA, I read on the website of the Michigan State University Archives, he was a musician, pianist, an American who studied at the conservatory in Brussels. He graduated cum laude and also found the love of his life.

In Brussels, he met Berthe Smedt, daughter of Charles Smedt, the restaurant owner of Grand Restaurant de la Monnaie in 13 Rue Leopold, just behind La Monnaie.

Berthe Smedt and Lewis Richards on their wedding day. Image: MSU Archives website

In 1908, Lewis (Lewis Loomis Richards, born in Saint Johns, Clinton County, Michigan, on April 11, 1881, died in Michigan in 1940) and Berthe (Berthée Emilie Smedt, born in Brussels on June 19, 1884) were married in Brussels.
It so happens that my grandparents Van Kempen were also married in 1908. A funny coincidence that makes history come alive for me.
The wedding photo of Berthe shows a “cloud” of a wedding dress. Imagine it would have been preserved, the photo displays such!

Berthe’s mother, Emilie Marie Jeanne Schamps, was born in Brussels on September 25, 1856. Charles Smedt (born in Brussels, December 24, 1852, died January 30, 1911, butcher by profession, then restaurant owner) ran a restaurant during the World Fair in Brussels from his Grand Restaurant de la Monnaie, a “succursale” called: “Chien Vert” (Green Dog).

The World Exhibition of 1910 at Brussels *)
The phenomenon of the 1910 World Exhibition amazes me because of its scale; it is worth a deeper dive. The exhibition area was 88 hectares in size, 26 countries had a pavillion there and it attracted 13 million visitors. No wonder that Restaurant du Chien Vert is located in a monumental building; even it only lasted for six months.
I imagine that Lewis Richards would have performed in atmospheric concerts in his father-in-law’s restaurant.

The Pavilion of restaurant “Chien Vert” (“Green Dog”) during the World Exhibition 1910 in Brussels

Photographs of the World Exhibition were printed on postcards and were collector’s items. Through the website “La Belgique des Quatre Vents” I get a good impression of the “Exposition Universelle de 1910 à Bruxelles et Tervueren“.

Poster for the “Procession of the Seasons”, design by Antoine Springael, 1910

My gaze is held by this poster. I recognize the lady in the middle … She is depicted on a flour sack!
I dive into my photo archive and find the painted flour sack by Antoine Springael in the “Moulckers Collection“.

Painted flour sack, Antoine Springael, 1915; Moulckers Collection, St. Edwards University, Tx, USA

What a find. Antoine Springael has drawn the poster for the “Cortège des Saisons” in July 1910 and later, in 1915, he depicted the same Goddess of Summer on the American Commission’s flour sack!
Quite funny to compare the warm colors of the inviting poster with the somewhat messy black-and-white photo on the postcard of the actual Cortège des Saisons.

“Procession of the Seasons” during the 1910 World Exhibition in Brussels
Excerpt from the Report of the Miller’s Belgian Relief Movement by M. Edgar, 1915

Back to Berthe Smedt and Lewis Richards.
In his work for the CRB (officially from January 1915) in Brussels, Lewis played a role in the sale of decorated flour sacks to Americans who came to Belgium accompanying the delivery of relief supplies.

Mr. Edgar from “The Miller’s Belgian Relief Movement” placed an order in March 1915, 105 years ago this month, for embroidered flour sacks. I wrote about it in my blog “A Celebrity Flemish Flour Bag in the Land of Nevele”.

Letter of thanks on behalf of the British Queen, 1917

In 1917 Richards worked for the CRB in London and sold two Belgian lace cushions to the British Queen.

In short, Lewis Richards was a man of standing, lived in Brussels in 1914-1915, ran with the wealthy circles in Brussels from the inside, spoke the language of both Belgians and Americans. He would have known what it was like, the history of the decorated flour sacks …

I find information about Richards’ work for the CRB in various sources:

1) Hugh Gibson, secretary of the United States Embassy in Brussels, writes in “A Journal from our Legation in Belgium“, 1917 (pp. 342-344):
“Christmas 1914.- Immediately after lunch we climbed into the big car and went out to Lewis Richards’ Christmas tree. He has a big house at the edge of town, with grounds which were fairy-like in the heavy white frost. He had undertaken to look after 600 children, and he did it to the Queen’s taste. They were brought in by mothers in bunches of one hundred, and marched around the house, collecting things as they went. In one room each youngster was given a complete outfit of warm clothes. In another, some sort of toy which he was allowed to choose. In another, a big bag of cakes and candies, and, finally, they were herded into the big dining-room, where they were filled with all sorts of Xmas food. There was a big tree in the hall, so that the children in their triumphal progress, merely walked around the tree. Stevens had painted all the figures and the background of an exquisite creche, with an electric light behind it, to make the stars shine. The children were speechless with happiness, and many of the mothers were crying as they came by.
Since the question of food for children became acute here, Richards has been supplying rations to the babies in this neighbourhood. The number has been steadily increasing, and for some time he has been feeding over two hundred youngsters a day. He has been very quiet about it, and hardly anyone has known what he was doing.
It is cheering to see a man who does so much to comfort others; not so much because he weighs the responsability of his position and fortune, but because he has great-hearted sympathy and instinctively reaches out to help those in distress. Otherwise the day was pretty black, but it did warm the cockles of my heart to find this simple American putting some real meaning into Christmas for these hundreds of wretched people. He also gave a deeper meaning for the rest of us.”

2) Tracy B. Kittredge has described Lewis Richards as one of the CRB’s most valuable employees. Quote of page 283 from “The History of The Commission for Relief in Belgium 1914-1917“:
“…in January 1916… was succeeded as general secretary by Mr. Lewis Richards, who had organised the Commission’s work in Greater Brussels. It was Mr. Richards who had devised and put into operation the card catalogue of the population of Brussels which had made possible the checking of the bread distribution and the combing out of some 150,000 extra rations of flour which had been distributed to bakers who had fraudulently padded their lists. Mr. Richards, after performing this service in Greater Brussels, had gone to Northern France in April 1915 as chief representative for the most important French district, that of the north, with headquarters at Valenciennes. After a few months there he went to Holland, where he helped in the Rotterdam office until Hoover asked him to return to Brussels to become general secretary. He remained at this post until July 1916, when he went out to Rotterdam again, this time to become assistant director of the Commission’s office there. Almost a year later he was called to London as assistant director of the central office of the Commission, in which capacity he is still serving. Mr. Richards, because of his experience and personal qualities, proved throughout his whole service to be one of the most valuable of the Commission’s representatives.”

3) In July 1919, a laudation about Richards’ CRB work appeared in The San Francisco Call and Post.

If a personal archive of his were to exist, it would have to be found in the archives of Michigan State University in East Lansing.

A long time ago, in 1981, I was on holidays in Michigan to visit some college friends I had made in the “American Law” course during my law studies at Erasmus University Rotterdam. If only I could have known then that I would later wish to be in East Lansing in my search for decorated flour sacks.
That is why I am starting a new research day today, closer to home, in search of the history of the Smedt family, daughter Berthe and son-in-law Lewis Richards in Brussels!

Foot note
*) After the First World War, the ULB university was established on the site of the Brussels World Exhibition of 1910, ‘Solbosch’. Made possible with money left over from the collaboration between the Comité National de Secours et d’Alimentation and the Commission for Relief in Belgium.
According to the interview by La Pensée et les Hommes with Serge Jaumain, vice-rector for international relations at the ULB. Presented by Jacques Lemaire: L’Expo 1910 opened the way to… the ULB.
In this way the decorated flour sacks also contributed to the establishment of the ULB and its establishment at Solbosch.

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A Canadian flour bag and embroidery of proud Belgian women

Decorated flour sack from WWI, 1915, collection Textile Research Center, Leiden; photo: author

This is my first article about a decorated flour bag from WWI, written in June 2018.

The Flour Bag has been part of the collection of the Textile Research Center (TRC) in Leiden, The Netherlands, since 2017 and was a gift from Pepin van Rooijen of Pepin Press, Amsterdam.

Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, director of TRC, wrote on the occasion of the donation about the “Belgian Embroidered Flour Bags”.

You can read the English translation of my article here.

 

Original flour sack PEACE MAKER -1914- in the Royal Military Museum

PEACE MAKER, Campbell & Ottewell, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 1914. Coll. WHI, photo: author

The War Heritage Institute in Brussels holds an original flour sack PEACE MAKER, Campbell & Ottewell, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 1914, in the collection of the Royal Military Museum. The cotton flour bag is in poor condition, but clearly recognizable.

PEACE MAKER, detail flour sack. Coll. WHI, photo: author

The printing in red and blue colors shows the brand name ‘Peace Maker’ and the contours of the wings of the dove of peace (WHI Box 10 LOT 410 1856 to 410 1887).

 

 

 

Embroidered Flour Sack WHITE ROSE -1915- in Belgian private collection

WHITE ROSE, detail embroidered flour sack, 1915. Photo: author

Canadian mill Campbell & Ottewell, Edmonton, Alberta, also supplied bagged flour with the brand name WHITE ROSE. There is a well embroidered example in a Belgian private collection; the embroidery threads are in the Belgian colors red, yellow, black and the American colors red, white, blue; the cloth is all around finished with a lace edge.

WHITE ROSE, Campbell & Ottewell, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, embroidered flour sack, 1915. Private coll. Belgium, photo: author
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