GC featured this lovely illustrated map of Made in the U.S.A. brands. Eleven companies, founded between 1873 and 1999, four from the 19th century, the rest of the 20th, creating the best blankets, shirts, bags, jeans and boots. And as Red Wing Shoes we're proud to be featured as the 'Iconic producers of resurgent, Rust Belt-ready work boots'! Thank you for that.
(Read the feature here / The illustration was made by the talented Jon Han)
We found another old cabinet photo of a group of miners in the Jack Possum Mine, Wentworth, Missouri. There's not much information on this mine, but with a little research we found out that it was owned by Smith & Hodges Mining Co. and was one of the largest in that area around 1915 to dig for sphalerite, the most common zinc ore.
It's a beautiful picture that breaths the dark underground atmosphere, the young brave men wearing heavy boots, denim overalls and dungarees accompanied by a hinny on the right for the real heavy work. A great addition to our growing collection.
Just found out about this amazing documentary film illustrating the life, skills & character of the turn-of-the-century Maine lumbermen & river drivers. Using oral histories, rare films & photography 'In The Blood' presents an accurate and vivid portrait of the men who pioneered their way through the 19th century Maine woods. The documentary was made by Sumner McKane, a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and filmmaker based in mid-coast Maine and is a truly amazing source of inspiration.
When we started the Red Wing Shoes store Amsterdam I started collecting bank bags, and although I didn't started a real collection before I completely lost myself on ebay, searching for vintage bank bags, leather deposit bags and other vintage bank related pieces. The collection is still growing but I forced myself to put the energy in something worth sharing here. And a new collection was born.
Together with Menno we're now putting together a collection of vintage photographs of people wearing denim (for Tenue de Nîmes) and images of rail-, mine-, and factory workers for the Red Wing Shoes store Amsterdam. It's an amazing source of inspiration, and they will probably make it into a publication, but until then we will share some here.
A while ago the International Business Times put together an amazing set of images from the Depression Era. 'These vivid color photos from the Great Depression and World War II capture an era generally seen only in black-and-white. Photographers working for the United States Farm Security Administration (FSA) and later the Office of War Information (OWI) created the images between 1939 and 1944.' Simply beautiful! (More here and here)
We love browsing the LIFE archives - there is so much to see, and such a rich documentation on the working class of the 20th century.. The other day we found these works by Hansel Mieth (1909–1998), a German-born photojournalist who worked on the staff of LIFE Magazine. She was best known for her social commentary photography which recorded the lives of working class Americans in the 1930s and 1940s. Here an amazing series of pictures of men working in a tannery and gloves factory in the late 30s.
