© Frank H. Jump
1913 Ad H W Gossard Maternity Corset Abdominal Support
Courtesy of Bobbins & Bombshells
The movement of factories to find lower labor costs is not something that started when shoes began to be made in China. In 1920 Gossard opened a factory in Ishpeming, Michigan that eventually employed 600 women, Once it was the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (and, to a much greater extent, the American south) that offered a ready supply of inexpensive non-unionized labor. I knew a woman who came to the U.P. in the late 1940s to organize the workers for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. After a long strike, she succeeded and the plant continued for another 20 years after that, finally closing in 1966. There’s a nice exhibit about “The Gossard” in the Cliffs Mine Museum in Ishpeming and a brief article about it here. Best quote:”You were a forward thinking woman if you wore a front-lacing corset.” – Comment from Yooperann on Chicago Man’s Flickr Photostream
- Fashionable History – March 11, 2010 – Bobbins & Bombshells
- Gossard Heritage
- John Iwanski Photography – Chitown Photos
