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This heavily embroidered textile is made of panels cut from cotton flour sacks and rejoined with bands of handmade lace. The text is embroidered in the colors of the Belgian flag, and indicates Pawnee County, Kansas, contributed 1,000 sacks of flour to "Belgium Sufferers" in 1914-15. The bag apparently was embellished by needle workers at the orphanage in Hoesselt, Belgium. This sack originally contained Kansas flour sent overseas during World War I for relief efforts organized by the Commission for Relief in Belgium. Some of the sacks were embroidered by Belgian women and returned to the United States as an expression of gratitude. The Kansas Belgian Relief Fund received this sack and placed it on display in a downtown Topeka store before donating it to the Kansas Historical Society.
Date: between 1915 and 1916
Item Number: 223741
Call Number: 1916.15.2
KSHS Identifier: 1916.15.2
Agriculture - Crops - Wheat
Business and Industry - Agricultural Industries - Milling - Mills
Collections - Museum
Community Life - Clubs and organizations - Charitable - Relief
Date - 1910s
Military - Wars - World War I
Objects and Artifacts - Tools & Equipment for Science & Technology - Merchandising - Bag
Places - Counties - Pawnee
Places - International - Belgium
Thematic Time Period - World War I, 1914 - 1919
Type of Material - Objects and Artifacts
http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/223741