The American Bandanna - S.H. Greene & Sons
This is the second installment of this multi-part series on The American Bandanna. You can read the first here.
Hobo 1924 Norman Rockwell
History
Founded in 1828 The Clyde Bleachery and Printworks were founded by Simon H. Greene in Warwick Rhode Island. It was the major manufacturer of American Turkey Red bandannas. During this time the (Scotland) Glascow mills produced the most bandannas globally through John Orr Ewing Co., Henry Monteith & Co. and William Stirling and Sons and eventually The United Turkey Red Company produced bandannas and exported to the US market. Competition for handkerchiefs was fierce as hygiene standards and manners changed the demand for handkerchiefs surged. Social groups identified with each other with secret handshakes and handkerchiefs. This was also a time before antibiotics and coal power was the norm, so the air quality is urban areas was less than ideal. Competition in the later half of the 19th century came from Oriental Printworks in Apponaug R.I., both firms made bandannas and handkerchiefs for the World Expo in 1876. S.H. Greene and Sons was most notably known for making the presidential campaign bandannas of the 1860’s - 1890’s. Later Davis & Catterall would take the torch for presidential campaign bandannas starting with the “Roosevelt Battle Flag” signed “D&C NY”. The majority of their bandannas were unbranded and sold under a variety of names; for example “Liberty”, “Red Jacket”, “Standard” “American” etc. Because of the age of these textiles it is really difficult to get resources for more information about specifics. RIHS (Rhode Island Historical Society) has a physical resource library on site with sample books and ledges and lots of information about specifics of the company and what they produced. In 1885 or 1888 the Valley Queen Mill was purchased by B.B. & R Knight (Fruit of the Loom) which was Greene’s largest plant. As competition increased and demand dwindled, Greene and Sons eventually went out of business in 1926, and B.B. & R Knight finally succumbed to the same in 1931. The Valley Queen mill was sold to a Bradford Soap Works thereafter. Fruit of the Loom continued making bandannas under the “Guaranteed Fast Color” label.
Products
Original Handkerchief box from 1800s
In addition to turkey red and indigo (not natural indigo) handkerchiefs they also printed various muslin fabrics probably mostly quilt fabrics, feed bags, and just general-use muslin fabric. The standard sizes for bandannas at this time was the 18 inch and the 20 inch. These are pocket bandannas but were often used by cowboys, railroad workers, and just about every working man and child around. There are volumes of pictures from the 1800s of working men wearing bandannas. In Norman Rockwell’s painting the red bandanna which I refer to as “Dots” shows up constantly in his work.
Packaging
Most bandannas were sold in dozen lots. They usually came packaged in a box or tied with string, typically bought through mail order catalogs. (How little things have changed, Amazon). To my knowledge there were no seals or stickers on these bandannas.
Collecting and Dating
Campaign bandannas are fairly straight forward, election year and the candidates. Just match them up. For the “Marth Washington S.H. Greene & Sons” These were most like made from 1876 to the early 1900’s. I have seen a few that are marked with dates or sandwiched in scrapbooks around 1900-1908. Packaging is the rarest and most sought after as most of these were discarded carelessly.
References
“Coloring the Nation: The Turkey Red Printed Cotton Industry In Scotland c.1840-1940”: Stana Nenadie and Sally Tuckett
“American Guide Series : Rhode Island”: 1937, Federal Writers Project
Mail Order Catalog from 1909
