April 2016

From the Back RoomPage 11Vitally Valuable Volunteers

Good News!Page 10Oldest Newspapers Now Online

Sculptural, bright red and beautiful, that is how we describe this purse shown in the new exhibit. It is from the 1950s

and is on loan from Kate Slaminko.

Page 1, 4Small Bags for Big Events

Page 2Caring for Family Treasures

Small Bags for Big Events:100 Years of Pretty Purses

Things To DoPage 3Bookmarks & Landmarks

Featured History What’s Happening?

Continued on page 4

FEATURED HISTORY

How might one learn about women’s history, experience the beauty of fabulous design, and enjoy beautiful clothing all at the same time? Well, by attending our newest exhibit!

Working with the founder of the Seattle Vintage Clothing and Textile Club, Kate Slaminko, we were able to borrow fabulous examples of historic evening and special event purses from a number of privately held collections. When combined with stellar examples from our own collection, you get a display of bags ranging from jeweled to satin, beaded to chainmail, and the gaudy to the divine.

An Exhibit And ArticlE by GuEst curAtor KAtE slAminKo

On display through June 19, Small Bags for Big Events is a display of 150 fancy dress bags and purses dating from the 1860s to the 1960s.

a newsletter of the white river valley museum

Late PLay DatesFirst thursDay oF every Month 6 - 8 P.M.

Bring the kids to the Museum for themed activities and crafts perfect for families and community groups with kids age 3 – 12. Free, no registration required.

May 21, June 18, anD JuLy 16 10 a.M. Bookmarks & Landmarks is a new book club event with a local, historic twist. Read one or all of the titles then visit these historic sites for a program including guest speakers and special tours. Each program will include a group book discussion lead by a King County Library System librarian. Free, but pre-registration is required.

May 21: Bereiter houseThe Boys in The BoaT By DanieL JaMes Brown

Guest speakers will include rowing historians, current rowing enthusiasts and a special appear-ance from Auburn’s own 1952 Olympic bronze medalist for rowing, Al Rossi.

June 18: Mary oLson FarM The orchardisT By aManDa CoPLin

Farm arborist Robert Sweet will give a tour of the Olson’s century old orchard followed by a special look at the novel with Green River College professor Dr. Michelle Marshman.

This event is sponsored in part by Humanities Washington, the King County Library System and SoCo Culture.

JuLy 16: neeLy Mansion Looking Like The enemy By Mary MatsuDa GruenewaLD

Author Mary Matsuda Gruenewald and local members of the Japanese American com-munity, who were incarcerated in internment camps during WWII, will recount their

experiences from that time.

BeaDeD Purse workshoP May 14 1-4 P.M.Instructor and artist Teresa Owens will teach you basic bead embroidery techniques to create a fabulous tiny beaded purse. Materials and handouts provided.$55 per person, registration required.

PreservinG your FaMiLy treasures -ProteCtinG siLver anD JeweLry

aPriL 23 1 P.M.Curator of Collections Hilary Pittenger will share her best tips andtricks for preserving your family’s treasures. Bring your questions! Included in regular Museum admission or membership, no registration required.

Register for Museum events online at wrvmuseum.org. Register for Museum and Farm events online at www.wrvmuseum.org or call 253-288-7439.

WHAT’S HAPPENINGThings To Do

3

WHAT’S HAPPENINGThings To Do

Small Bags for Big Events100 Years of Pretty Purses

Bookmarks & LandmarksRead the Book, See the History!

Evening and special occasion purses on display through June 19!

Don’t miss out on our sparkling exhibit of fancy purses dating from the 1860s to the 1960s. Guest Curator Kate Slaminko had a hard time selecting only 150 from this museum’s collection and those of regional vintage clothing lovers. From a small hand-crafted white drawstring bag that was made to carry a hanky and fan, to a gold brocade clutch in which the increasingly indepen-dent woman of the 1950s carried cigarettes, car keys, cash and lipstick, the purses tell about women’s lives and are just beautiful to behold! We thank 4Culture for sponsoring this exhibit.

www.wrvmuseum.org • 253-288-7433

FEATURED HISTORY

Continued from page1

It’s Purse-onal! What makes a bag a purse?

There isn’t much difference between a drawstring bag and a sack. What makes them different? Mostly, it’s what’s in them. Are you carrying a lipstick and a few coins? Or turnips? If the items in the bag are personal and varied—then it is a purse. If all you have is your knitting—it’s a workbag. If there are just kittens in your little basket, it’s adorable. But if you have a hanky, a comb and face powder, it is a purse.

Early purses were usually drawstring bags and made of the same fabric as the dress—that is they were made to match and you had one for each dress (if you were rich). But the purse had too much potential for embellishment and soon handbags were being made in a wide range of materials.

It All Starts With the PocketHow did women carry around their ‘necessities’ before they had hand-bags…you can always tuck a hanky into your sleeve, but what about other things?

Well, first there were fewer ‘other things.’ No cell phones, no car keys, no cigarettes or chewing gum. But for what they did need, there were pockets. Not the kind we think of—sewn into the clothing—but sepa-rate from your garment and tied around your waist under your clothes.If you wanted access to your tied-on pocket, you left an opening in your skirt so you could reach through. But if security was your prime goal, you put the pocket on under your petticoats so no one could easily get to it—including you!

Another Option Was the Chatelaine Taken from the French word for mistress of the house, chatelaines attached to your clothing by pin or clamp, and the things you needed (keys, pencil, tablet, thimble, etc.) hung down on chains. Chat-elaines came and went in fashion and eventually became symbolic of the well-organized housekeeper often seen with the household keys hanging from her belt.

Or Miser’s BagsOne of the oldest styles of purse are miser’s bags. They were usually knitted or crocheted in a tube shape. The central slit allows access inside the tube which is opened or closed by a slide of the rings. The beaded decoration—frequently metal—kept the rings from slipping off the tube. Women crafted the two ends differently so they could tell them apart by touch, or without looking. Small mi-ser’s bags were usually just coin purses, but larger ones could hold many things. Very long miser’s bags were looped over the belt to hang outside your clothing. Miser’s bags were gender-neutral. Dark colored bags are usually thought to be men’s, perhaps thoughtful gifts from their wives, daughters or sweethearts. Flashy painted gold tone metal mesh bag, made by Whiting

& Davis, c 1910, on loan from Kate Slaminko.

5www.wrvmuseum.org • 253-288-7433

Small Bags for Big Events:100 Years of Pretty Purses

by KAtE slAminKo

Ordinary People, Extraordinary History 7www.wrvmuseum.org • 253-288-7433

Just like today, women’s magazines of the nineteen teens and twenties tantalized women with the newest fashions. Unlike today however, most historic women’s magazines included instructions for making those items.

A handmade drawstring bag of exquisite ingenuity! Blue handwork embellished with pearls, c 1920, on loan from J Weiss.

Loving Hands at Home Purse-craft was considered an acceptable occupation for a well-brought up young lady—instructions and materials abounded and are on display throughout the exhibit. Knit, crochet, tat, embroidery, bead work (both mesh and woven,) macramé, and needlepoint are all ways that women created something beautiful and useful in the form of a purse!

Throughout this exhibit are displayed ads and articles from period magazines housed in the Museum’s archives. Most women’s magazines from the 1880s through the 1930s feature articles showing how to make a bag or purse, not to different from today’s how-to needlework magazines.

Early Purses Fabric Only, Please!Purses as we think of them have been around since the early 1800s, but they hit the mainstream because of a different fashion trend—the hoop skirt. The large round skirt (usually supported by a stiff structure) made pockets, and anything in them, show. A fashion faux pas! So women switched to the exterior handbag.

Fashions in years following the hoop skirt era were not very pocket-friendly, but the final death knell came not from dress fashion but from “face painting.” The rise in the use of cosmetics and the simultaneous skimpiness of dresses in the 1920s fueled an already booming market in purses. Beaded chiffon just can’t hide any sort of pocket. The clinging bias cut of the 1930s would have shown every lump. And while the styles of the 1940s could and did include pockets, rationing limited their size and number. But along the way, what a woman carried with her when she exited her home had increased to the point that pockets just didn’t do the job anymore. Besides the hand-kerchief and a comb there were keys and cosmetics, mints and money, ration books and cigarettes, which need matches or a lighter as well, and oh my, the list goes on!

Pioneer of the (Leather) Handbag In 1841 Samuel Parkinson, a wealthy English candy maker, ordered a set of traveling cases and trunks from London-based trunk maker H.J. Cave, and insisted on a traveling case or bag for his wife’s ‘particulars.’ Parkinson noticed his wife’s purse was too small and made from material that would not withstand any sort of journey. He stipulated a variety of handbags be made for his wife, varying in size for different occasions, and asked that they be made from the same leather that was being used for his cases and trunks.

Cave obliged and produced the first modern set of luxury handbags including a clutch and a tote (named a ‘ladies traveling case’). These very items are now on display in the Museum of Bags and Purses in Amsterdam. Cave did continue to sell and advertise the handbags, but many critics said that women did not need them and that bags of such size and heavy material would ‘break the backs of ladies.’ Consequently, Mr. Cave ceased promoting the bags after 1865, concentrating on trunks instead.

WWI Affects Purse Design Like many other things, war changed purses. From creative solutions needed due to rationing rules to the ideas and goods returning soldiers brought with them, not to mention advances in technology spurred by war needs, we see change after conflict, especially foreign conflict.

Soldiers returning from WWI brought home-beaded bags made in France, although some-times made meant assembled. This fueled an already flourishing fascination with beaded purses, and the 1920s saw more designs and more variety than earlier decades. WWII brought rationing and many a woman turned to her cro-chet hook or knitting needles to ‘make do.’ After that, WWII plastics proliferated and of course got “made” into purses. Even the protest against war had an effect. As the hippies campaigned against involvement in Vietnam, they returned to nature and resurrected the craft of knotting string to make macramé bags.

Whiting & Davis, 1876 to TodayPretty Purses Made of Metal MeshThe story began in 1876 when three men - William H. Wade, Edward P. Davis and Louis Heckman - shook hands and founded a silver-smith company known at the time as Wade, Davis & Co. They opened doors in August of that year and debuted with a collection of sterling silver jewelry and popular designs of the Late Vic-torian era, including stickpins, bracelets, earrings and bar pins.

In 1880, an office and errand boy by the name of Charles A. Whiting was hired for 9 cents an hour. Within a short ten-year span, he progressed through the ranks, serving as artisan, salesman foreman, and by 1890 was serving as the com-pany representative for the New York office.

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Ordinary People, Extraordinary History 9www.wrvmuseum.org • 253-288-7433

The name Whiting & Davis is synonymous with beautifully made metal chainmail bags crafted from the 1890s through to today.

This 1960s bag is of bright green fake fur and would have looked swinging with a pair of Go-Go boots! On loan from the Tacoma

Goodwill Vintage Fashion Program..

The fashionable woman of the early 1950s embraced the New Look which emphasized a small waistline and flaring hemline, and was

completed by high heels and a clutch bag.

8

In 1892, Charles Whiting wove by hand the first Whiting & Davis handbag, transforming the ancient art of chain-mail into an exquisite fabric. The small purse was crafted in plated ring mesh, roughly three inches square and featured a delicate twist closure and a simple leaf motif on the frame. By 1896, Charles Whiting partnered with Edward Davis and the name Whiting & Davis was born.

Until 1909, ring mesh was crafted entirely by hand, the technique was very slow and laborious. By 1912, Charles Whiting improved the factory’s efficiency by introducing automatic machines for making mesh. At the speed of 400 rings per minute, these machines were able to perform the cutting, splitting and joining - all tasks formerly done by hand. The increase in produc-tion made the bags less expensive and sales increased.

The Twenties brought in Art Deco and geometric designs. Whiting & Davis began stenciling applied pat-terns to create colorful patterns on the mesh handbags. In the late 20s the company joined forces with Paul Poiret, a French couturier well-known throughout the Twenties and Thirties, to create a Parisian-style collection of handbags. The collection was introduced through a dramatic full-page ad in The Jewelers Circular, announcing the colorful, painted handbags featuring Dresden, flat and Beadlite mesh. The handbags featured Art Deco frames and were lined with a structured silk fabric, giving them a more pouch-like shape.

In 1937, Whiting & Davis teamed up with Italian fash-ion designer Elsa Schiaparelli to create a collection of daytime and evening handbags. The styles were pouch-shaped finely crafted in flat and Beadlite mesh, featuring rhinestone clasps with finishes in gold, studded silver and iridescent pearl white.

During World War II, Whiting & Davis experienced the shortage of brass and aluminum and as a result, shifted the focus from designing metal mesh jewelry and acces-sories to assist with the war effort. Whiting & Davis also produced mesh for Navy seamen to throw overboard and divert enemy sonar systems. Throughout that time, the Whiting & Davis also created jobs in the country by designing promotional dainty mesh handbags for 25 cents through Home Journal magazine.

Transitioning into the Fifties, First Lady Mamie Eisenhow-er was spotted carrying a Whiting & Davis mesh handbag - a sight not all uncommon after Charles Whiting began a tradition of gifting a handbag with gold mesh and ex-quisite diamonds to every president’s wife. Whiting and Davis bags are still being sold today.

[It should be noted that much of the information on Whiting and Davis was taken from their company website which is still selling pretty purses to the modern world at www.whitinganddaviscollection.com.]

One ingenious Renaissance man put the family fortune—in the form of gemstones—into his codpiece (a pouch worn in front of the crotch by men of fashion) to keep them safe, giving rise to the phrase ‘family jewels.’ Wal-lets were also in use by men, but they were not what we think of today – early ones pre-date paper money and looked like large, folding leather envelopes. They served the same function as the friar’s tote but without a strap.

The most purse-like of male accessories is the Sporran. Still part of the traditional Scottish Highland dress, the Sporran is a leather or leather and fur bag that hangs from the belt in front of the kilt, and while it may have held a coin or two and nowadays probably has his cell phone, traditionally the most common item in a man’s Sporran is…a sandwich.

In closing, we wish to thank Kate Slaminko for this trip into the world of vintage fashion, the lenders for sharing beautiful treasures from their collections and 4Culture for financially supporting this exhibit.

Rationing During WWIILeather was rationed during WWII and while this had the greatest effect on the manufacture of shoes, purses were not immune to a decreased supply. There was also a patriotic sentiment against conspicuous consumption, and as shoes were sometimes replaced by fabric and cord espadrilles, fabric also replaced leather for purses—cord thread, and fabric all got pulled into war-time duty, making purses during this era simple and often highly functional—even evening bags.

Lastly, What About the Men? Simple male belt pouches—leather circles with holes punched around the edge for a drawstring—are ancient, easy to make, and had the advantage of keeping one’s coins in one place.

But bags in which a man carried things other than just money have also been in use for a very long time. During Medieval times scripts (think tote bag) were used by monks and friars. Besides carrying paper they frequently held lunch.

FROM THE BACK ROOM

10 11

By Curator of Collections Hilary Pittenger

Saving Historical NewspapersOur Annual Volunteer Training in January was a huge success with many new recruits joining

the veteran volunteers. So far we have added Marlene

Anderson, Judy Erickson, John Hewitt, Kathleen Hoppenrath, Nancy Huber, Linda Keil and

Georgia Kinkade to the roster, scheduled and ready for

volunteer work, for which we are very thankful!

Thanks to gift from volunteer Scott Gibbons you too have a chance to own a vintage Hair Tonic bottle (empty)

for only $3.95! Interestingly this treatment contained

50% alcohol and “promoted hair growth”! Other vintage

bottles offered in the gift shop come complete with labels for Modified Brown Mixture (52%

alcohol,) Aromatic Cascara, and Medicated Alcohol that

is labeled Poison. Special gifts abound in the Museum Shop!

Newspapers are one of the most valuable col-lections a historical archive can have. For most of the 19th and 20th centuries, a town’s newspapers were the focal point of public discourse: they recorded both the large events in a town’s life and the small society news, votes, debates, business for-tunes, births, deaths, and anything else of note that happened within a certain geographic area. Ad-vertisements in historical newspapers show which businesses were in town and what kind of services or goods they were choosing to sell.

They certainly are not a perfect record. Publish-ers and writers were often biased or completely incorrect in their reporting, and most historical newspapers especially failed to fairly report on news related to people of color and immigrant communities. However, by comparing newspaper accounts with other historical documents, re-searchers can begin to understand these biases and figure out which statements to take at face value and which to call into question.

The other problem with historical newspapers is they were usually printed on very thin, cheap pa-per. This was great for the budget of the newspa-per printers, but bad for newspaper preservation – this cheap type of paper is highly acidic and very easily damaged by light, water, and regular handling. Even with careful preservation, most newsprint becomes extremely brittle and even disintegrates after about 100 years.

To prevent our oldest newspapers from crumbling into unusable dust, the White River Valley Museum began a project to digitize and preserve our oldest, most vulnerable newspapers. This project was sup-ported by a grant from 4Culture. Our newspaper

collection goes back to 1893, and it includes titles that document the history of the whole White River Valley, including Auburn, Kent, Algona, Pacific, and many of the smaller towns and settlements that used to lie between them, like Thomas, Chris-topher, and O’Brien.

Digitizing our newspaper collection has several benefits, both for the newspapers themselves and for researchers wishing to access them. The most important benefit is that the information written about in the newspapers will now be preserved, even if the newspapers themselves should suffer future damage from their inherent acidity. Now that there are digital versions, we have been able to pack the newspapers away in long-term stor-age where they will be handled very little, which will also prevent unnecessary damage to the actual papers themselves.

For researchers, this means they can now access some of our oldest, most in-demand newspapers right from our website! Not only have the newspa-pers been scanned so that the original layout and design of the page is intact, but we have used OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology to make each page fully searchable by keyword. This will allow museum researchers and staff to make quick, simple searches of the information in our newspapers to find references to a person, place, or event, rather than the painstaking work of going through each page individually.

Currently, the Museum has digitized issues of The White River Journal and The Kent Advertiser from 1893 to 1899. To begin your search, visit the White River Valley Museum website!

www.wrvmuseum.org • 253-288-7433

Good news!

White River Journal is edited by Patricia Cosgrove, designed by Jan Hoy Design White River Valley Museum | 918 H Street SE | Auburn, WA, 98002 | Tel. 253.288.7433 | Fax 253.931.3098 | wrvmuseum.org

Museum Open: Noon to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, 6 to 8 p.m. first Thursday and by appointment for group tours and research. Admission: $2 for children and seniors, $5 for adults. Museum members free. First Thursday and third Sunday free.

Provides Ongoing Support

White River Valley Historical Society918 H Street SEAuburn, WA 98002

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PAIDAUBURN, WA

PERMIT NO. 193

Rhinestones, OOO! LA LA!

Just shy of 500, that is the number of pieces of jewelry borrowed for a special showing. On display to complement a larger exhibit of evening bags, this grouping of rhinestone jew-elry easily outshines all other displays. When the anonymous lender brought in about 100 pieces, Museum Director Cosgrove realized that to fill an exhibit case of this size, more items would be needed. When she said, “Any chance you can bring us about four times more?” The collector got a satisfied look and said, “Why, yes!” Don’t miss seeing them.

White RiveR JouRnal is a quarterly

publication of the White River Valley Museum,

which is supported in large part by

City of Auburn.

2016 Board officers

Mike Weibel President

Toya TurnerVice PresidentBill Greenetreasurer

Ronnie Beyersdorfsecretary

Kim PerryPast PresidentJack Swanson

Muckleshoot Tribal Representative

Board memBersJeff Black

Tim CarstensRuby ElwoodDave LarbergDoug LeinJoan MasonBill Sundqvist

museum staff

Patricia Cosgrovedirector

Linda LesterBookkeePer administratiVe

assistant

Rachael McAlisterCurator of Education

Ashley Rusteducation assistant

Hilary Pittengercurator of collections

Janet WellsVolunteer and facilities

coordinator

Send us your email address to arust@auburnwa.gov if you wish to receive our monthly e-newsletter, thanks!