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Between the Springmaid Sheets
Provocative 1940s and 50s
Advertising by Colonel Elliott White Springs
Winthrop University Galleries
September 10 – October 26, 2012
Published in conjunction with the exhibition Between the Springmaid Sheets, at
Winthrop University Galleries in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
This exhibition and publication was sponsored by Founders Federal Credit Union.
Additional funds for this exhibition have been provided by Springs Creative, the
Springs Close Family Archives, The Springs Company, Gary and Peggy Williams in
honor of the Close family and the Patrons of Winthrop University Galleries.
The galleries are funded through the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the
generous support of the Patrons of Winthrop University Galleries, The Elizabeth
Dunlap Patrick Gallery Endowment Fund, and the Edmund D. Lewandowski
Student Gallery Endowment Fund.
Exhibition Curator:
Karen Derksen, Director, Winthrop University Galleries
September 10 – October 26, 2012
College of Visual and Performing Arts
126 McLaurin Hall
Rock Hill, SC 29733
803/323-2493
www.winthrop.edu/vpa/galleries
Exhibition and catalogue research:
Ann Evans, Archivist, Springs Close Family Archives
Francine Kola-Bankole, Independent Researcher
Danielle Donnelly, Undergraduate Gallery Assistant
April 26 - September 8, 2013
South Carolina State Museum
301 Gervais Street
Columbia, SC 29202
803/898-4921
www.southcarolinastatemuseum.org
Exhibition catalog ©2012 Winthrop University Galleries, Rock Hill, SC. The Springs Close
Editor: Linda Starrett
Designer: Gerry Derksen
Photographer: Dustin Shores
Family Archives holds copyright to all artwork and images. All rights reserved. No part of
this publication may be used without the express written permission of Winthrop University
Galleries.
ISBN: 978-0-9859875-0-3
Contents
Page
06
Foreword
08
Preface
10
Introduction
13
From An Inherently Uninteresting Product to Famous Brand Springmaid
20
Selected Work
68
Exhibition Checklist
72
Additional Catalogue Images
75
Acknowledgments
Foreword
We’re proud and excited to bring the Between the Springmaid Sheets exhibition
to Winthrop University Galleries. For more than a century, advertising has been a
significant part of the fabric of our lives in the United States. And over the past three
decades, has been increasingly recognized for the creativity it has inspired as well as the
messages it communicates. The relationship between art and advertising has always
been controversial (there are some critics that insist ALL art is advertising) and with
the popularity of current TV shows such as “Mad Men” and “The Pitch”, the world of
advertising and its history are now undoubtedly front and center in American mainstream popular culture.
We are fortunate that some of the most creative, artistic, humorous, and successful
ad campaigns during the 1940s and 1950s were inspired by the innovative work of local
textile entrepreneur, Colonel Elliot White Springs. His provocative and outside-thebox campaigns are now considered an integral component of advertising history.
We especially want to thank Founders Federal Credit Union, Springs Creative, The
Springs Close Family Archives, The Springs Company, Peggy and Gary Williams, The
Fort Mill Historical Museum, and the South Caroliniana Library for their enormous
help and support in making this exhibition possible. We hope you enjoy it.
David Wohl, Dean
Winthrop University
6
Elliott Springs, no date
James Montgomery Flagg
Charcoal and Pencil, 14 x 12 inches
Collection of Springs Close Family Archives
7
Preface
Between the Springmaid Sheets explores the creative achievements of textile entrepreneur Colonel Elliot White Springs. Businessman, author and a product of the roaring jazz age, Springs combined his talents to produce provocative and controversial
advertising campaigns that would shock Madison Avenue and skyrocket his family’s
textile business, Springs Cotton Mills, to profitable success. His legacy offers Winthrop
University Galleries the opportunity to present original artworks by internationally
known illustrators within the context of the cultural and social standards of the 1940s
and 1950s.
Colonel Springs’ ad campaigns have been referenced by numerous scholars and
academics of advertising history, including Juliann Sivulka (Soap, Sex and Cigarettes: A
Cultural History of American Advertising), Tom Reichert (The Erotic History of Advertising), and Burke Davis (War Bird: The Life and Times of Elliott White Springs). In Advertising in America: The First 200 Years, authors Charles Goodrum and Helen Dalrymple
reference the Colonel’s sexually provocative approach:
According to John Tryten, editor of Sales Management, advertisers use sex in
advertising for one of two reasons. There are “those who think sex sells like
mad” and “those who think advertising doesn’t sell anyhow, so why not have a
little fun for the money as it goes down the drain.” Elliott White Springs put
these together and gave us the approach to sex in advertising with which we
have lived for the past fifty years. 1
When Springs’ controversial ad campaigns first launched in 1948, they received
national attention from public readership and the advertising industry. Springs undeniably grabbed attention with the use of sexually suggestive, illustrated imagery and pun;
some found humor, while others were outraged. A growing conservative post World
War II society and a “prim-and-proper” advertising industry lambasted the ads for bad
taste. So why did Springs choose sex and other societal taboos to sell textiles? Through
illustrative artworks, Between the Springmaid Sheets explores the motivations and societal circumstances that led to the provocative campaigns that built the successful brand
still known today as Springmaid.
The principle focus of the exhibition and catalogue are the original maquettes
(illustrations) and associated advertisements. Regrettably, a number of ads could not be
included. Historic information about the advertising was found in the Springs Cotton Mills corporate papers at the University of South Carolina Caroliniana Library in
Columbia, S.C., and at the Springs Close Family Archives in Fort Mill, S.C. Texts
about advertising history and autobiographical material were also used to supplement
information. More research is still necessary to ensure a holistic portrait of the Springmaid campaigns.
1 Dalrymple, Helen, and Goodrum, Charles.
Advertising in America -The First 200 Years. New
York: Abrams, 1990, 74.
From post World War II to the 1960s there was a momentous shift in American
culture and domestic life. In today’s popular culture we have seen a revived fascination
for the 1960s, with such television shows as “Mad Men” and “Pan Am.” Part nostalgia
8
and part critique, these shows present storylines about changing gender roles and other
social and cultural standards during the period. By looking back, we are able to examine current ideas about these roles and standards. How different is our society 60 years
after the Springmaid campaigns were launched? The exhibition is an opportunity for us
to explore not only the historical milieu of the campaigns, but also the role of sex and
gender in advertising and the visual culture of the period.
Between the Springmaid Sheets is the jumping off point for a series of four exhibitions throughout 2012-2013 at Winthrop University Galleries centering on the impact
“thread” and the textile industry have had on society, social structure, economics
and belief. The history of Springs Industries and Mara Kurtz’s exhibition Remnants:
A Collection of Rock Hill’s Visual Alterations, showing concurrently, establishes the
ongoing relevance of the textile industry in the region. The industry’s importance and
historic significance drawn from these two exhibitions solicits us to look forward and
contemplate how contemporary artists and designers are inspired by the materials and
vocabulary of the industry. Exhibitions in the continuing series by contemporary artists
Nava Lubelski, Libby O’Bryan, Sonya Clark and Christine Kirouac generate commentary and provide a new context beyond the deep-rooted dialogue of textile and/
or fiber creative practice as “women’s work” or “craft,” questioning what one considers
as “thread” or “fabric,” processes of “weaving” or “sewing,” “hand” or “machine” labor
and the meaning behind the objects created in today’s society.
Winthrop University Galleries is excited that this series of exhibitions and educational programs form a relationship with Winthrop’s 2012-2013 Common Book Project
“Where am I Wearing” by Kelsey Timmerman. The project chronicles the author’s
journey around the world to discover where his clothes were made, to learn about the
lives of those who work in the factories, and to understand the forces of globalization.
The connections created between art, design, artifact, industry and current social issues across the region and the globe will create a stimulating narrative to engage our
students and community audiences over the year.
Karen Derksen
Director/Curator
9
Introduction
Colonel Elliott White Springs was the third president of Springs Cotton Mills (today
known as Springs Industries), which began as the Fort Mill Manufacturing Company
chartered in 1887. Its initial investors included Samuel Elliott White (1837-1911) and
three Springs bothers: Eli, Leroy (Elliott’s father) and Brevard. Fort Mill, S.C. has been
the home of the Springs family for several hundred years. As early as 1820 the Springs
family, under its first patriarch John Springs (1782-1853), a wealthy cotton plantation
owner, owned large tracts of land, making the Springs family one of the most influential families of Fort Mill.
Prior to the 1880s, the local economy was supported by the farmed cotton crop,
handpicked, and then ginned to export north to be milled into finished goods. A few
mills spinning cotton yarn were in existence in South Carolina prior to the Civil War,
but the establishment of textile mills in the south took hold well after the war’s end.1
Daniel Augustus Tompkins, publisher of the Charlotte Observer, argued that if the
South stopped exporting cotton but converted it into coarse textiles, the economic value of cotton would increase at least four times.2 The establishment of new railroads, the
existence of a power source in Fort Mill (spring on the side of a hill) and an abundance
of people in need of work during the late 1880s created an ideal climate for building
a “New South” based on cotton mills. The Fort Mill Manufacturing Company soon
grew in reputation for “making the best goods … of any mill in the South.” 3
Colonel Elliott White Springs
at Princeton University (1913-1917)
1
Pettus, Louise. The Springs Story, Our First
Hundred Years. Fort Mill: Springs Industries,
1987, 9.
2 Ibid., 15, 19.
3 Ibid., 21.
4 Ibid., 46.
5 Davis, Burke. War Bird the Life and Times of
Elliot White Springs. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1987, 91.
6 Ibid., 102.
7 Ibid., 118.
Leroy Springs (1861-1931) was an entrepreneur from Lancaster, S.C. Rising from his
career as a traveling salesman, he bought a store that sold supplies to country farmers,
bought stock to leverage majority ownership of the mill, and diversified his holdings
to become a major cotton buyer, bettor of cotton futures and banker. Leroy became
Samuel Elliott White’s son-in-law when he married Grace White in 1892. At that time
he was the largest cotton shipper in the Southeast. Leroy became president of the Fort
Mill Manufacturing Company in 1911 after the death of his father-in-law.4
Leroy and Grace had one child, Elliott White Springs (1896-1959), born on July 31,
1896 in Lancaster, S.C. Young Elliott Springs graduated from Princeton in 1917 and
became a fighter pilot and U.S Air Ace during World War I. On return from the war,
he aspired to be a writer and enjoy the lifestyle of an adventurous young man during
the Roaring '20s against the wishes of his father to enter the family business. During
the 1920s, Springs married Frances Hubbard Ley and reluctantly held positions in his
father’s company, but he found the work dull and unsatisfying.5 He did achieve success
as a writer during this period, publishing autobiographical short stories and novels in
his spare time, such as “The Fastest Lap in Lapland,” “Skin Deep,” and “Women Are
Just Toys,” published in Red Book magazine March 1929. He also completed his most
critically acclaimed book War Birds: Diary of an Unknown Aviator, which debuted as
a series in Liberty magazine in 1925.6 Throughout his literary career, Springs worked
directly with America’s leading illustrators such as Clayton Knight and James Montgomery Flagg to bring his stories to life.7
When Elliott Springs inherited six cotton mills and 11 subsidiary companies in 1931
the combined worth of these holdings was valued over $7.25 million, but he inherited
a fortune that was deeply in debt. He consolidated these holdings into one corpora-
10
tion called The Springs Cotton Mills, reorganized to own majority shares, and by 1933
modernized the mills and centralized management under one roof.8
To ensure future success of Springs Cotton Mills, Springs realized early on the
importance for the mills to become a major producer of finished goods, but the stars
did not align for his plan to take form until the post World War II economy. To revive
the company following the war, Springs Cotton Mills began to manufacture finished
cotton goods, largely sheets, sold from their New York office.
It would be a controversial decision and one that would restructure the entire
organization. Within the first five years after the war, Springs would modernize and
expand, build the Grace Bleachery, establish a selling house in New York City, create a
national advertising campaign … and build new recreational facilities for employees.9
Prior to the opening of his finishing plants, most southern mills sent their grey goods
north to be finished.10 Grey goods consisted of unbleached, uncolored and unfinished
cloth. Grey goods were sold to converters – middle men who had the unfinished fabrics
bleached then dyed or printed at northern plants. The finished textiles were then sold to
wholesalers for the manufacturer of sewn goods.
Springs understood the success of this new company structure rested on a nationwide market for the Springs Cotton Mills textiles, and advertising was the means to
create that demand.11 Prior to Springs becoming a finisher of grey goods, Springs
Cotton Mills had had little need to advertise to the public, and most of the company’s
advertising had been in trade publications. For the first time, after previous abandoned attempts, Springs was able to create a coordinated national marketing program
in the “Springmaid” advertising campaign.12 Twenty years earlier in 1928, Springs
had attempted to persuade his father to modernize “the company’s dull, unimaginative advertising.”13 He added the first double entendre “You can’t go wrong on a Fort
Mill sheet” to the company’s 1890s logo and created an illustration with his old friend
Clayton Knight with the female character of Maizie Smith. As biographer Davis Burke
describes, “This projected ad provided a treasure hunt for readers alert to salacious
innuendo.”14 The ad was not accepted by his father, Leroy Springs, at that time but
presented inspiration for the Springs’ campaigns by 1946.
In 1946, Springs had grown dissatisfied with the conventional approach of his
New York advertising agency. “Your advertising needs pepping up,” Springs stated in
a letter criticizing his agency’s campaign, “Now, you are not the only outfit which is
lacking in originality. Many advertisements are an insult to a second grade IQ and
are just as dull as yours.”15 In the Elliott White Springs biography, War Bird, author
Burke Davis describes how Springs “acknowledged that cotton fabrics were ‘inherently
uninteresting’ to consumers and that the textile industry needed stimulating – even
shocking – advertising techniques.”16 As Professor James D. Taylor states in the article
“Elliott White Springs – Maverick Ad Leader,” “Springs faced the need to gain positive
national identification for a brand of an inherently uninteresting product, i.e., cotton
fabrics, and later sheets.”17
Also inspired by a set of New Yorker cartoons that caricatured ads for perfume and
fanny girdles, Springs wrote to his New York office what have become his famous
words, “Why can’t we combine the ridiculous with the sublime and get something
worthwhile out it? We’ll take a typical sexy ad and revive it into a cartoon. Or take a
cartoon and revise it into a sexy ad. This should please everyone.”18 After numerous attempts by his New York agents to produce Springs’ concepts with little success, he dismissed his agency and forged ahead without it. He would eventually hire Erwin, Wasey
11
Miss Mazie Smith, circa 1928
Clayton Knight
Pen and ink, 14 x 11 inches
8 Davis,
Burke. War Bird the Life and Times of
Elliot White Springs. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1987, 133.
9 Pettus, Louise. The Springs Story, Our First
1987, 124.
10 Ibid., 111; Davis, Burke. War Bird the Life
and Times of Elliot White Springs. Chapel Hill:
The University of North Carolina Press, 1987,
133-139.
1987, 111.
12 Ibid., 89, 93.
13 Davis, Burke. War Bird the Life and Times
of Elliot White Springs. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1987, 124.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid., 186.
16 Ibid.
17 Taylor, James D. “Elliott White Springs –
Maverick Ad Leader.”
Journal of Advertising 11.2 (1982): 40-46.
Advertising in America - The First 200 Years.
New York: Abrams, 1990, 74.
19 Davis,
Burke. War Bird the Life and Times
& Company as an agent, but his battles with magazines would continue. In May 1948,
Colonel Springs launched his campaign by placing ads in nine publications including
the Saturday Evening Post, Charm, Esquire, Cue and Fortune magazine.19 He designed
innovative ads combining seductive imagery with clever text and double entendre that
would establish the successful brand “Springmaid.” Springs had achieved the stimulating advertising strategy necessary to create a brand for an “inherently uninteresting
product.”
This is the Office That Runs the Mills
Advertisement
Fort Mill, S.C., the Heart of the
Cotton Belt
Illustrated by
Vernon Grant
Church and Wall Streets, the heart of
the Textile District
Illustrated by
Fredrick P. Goodrich
Collection of South Caroliniana Library,
University of South Carolina
Karen Derksen
12
From an inherently uninteresting product
to famous brand “Springmaid”
Unique Aspects of American Culture and society informed the American
approach to modern design. The United States is an egalitarian society with
capitalistic values, limited artistic traditions before WWII and a diverse
ethnic heritage. In this highly competitive society, novelty of technique and
originality of concept were much prized….
- Philip Meggs
In the history of advertising, Colonel Elliott White Springs’ provocative advertising campaigns are known for challenging the conventions of the time. His strategy to
combine humor with sexually and socially charged imagery had not been seen before
in mainstream advertising. Like designer and author Phillip Meggs, who described the
1940s as “a lackluster decade for advertising,”1 Springs found the ad men of Madison
Avenue too serious and would remedy the situation with the creation of his own advertising campaign to parody industry ads of the 1940s and '50s.
Springs’ convention-defying ad strategy was harmonious with the creative world of
his time. Early in the 20th century (1910-1920) the art world had split into factions
of avant-garde, mainstream and commercial art. After 1945, strong influences from
the avant-garde had moved from Europe to the United States. Avant-garde artists and
designers were challenging norms and traditions in form and practice. Modern art was
seeking new materials, methods, and compositions post World War II with Abstract
Expressionism, and design was responding to the needs of the expanding consumer
society. Globally, the International Style had taken hold in design. Rational, logical and
highly structured, the International Style was appropriate for universal communication, but the highly competitive, capitalistic market of the United States lent itself to
originality of concept and novelty of technique.2
American culture and society engendered an original approach to modern design
with the development of the New York School.3 In the 1940s Paul Rand, a pioneer of
the New York School, began to fuse word and image in advertising, combining pun
and wordplay supported by whimsical integration of photography, drawing and logo.4
Rand’s approach, “integrating words and phrases in a freer organization with visual
metaphors and puns,” became sought-after qualities in the 1950s and '60s by leading
advertising agencies such as Doyle Dane Bernbach.5 Like Rand, Springs was responding to the “unique aspects of American culture” that commanded originality and
novelty to reach its audience.
Springs’ exposure to sexually charged imagery and puns in trade publications, pin-up
calendars and magazines – particularly in the pin-up images that sprang from the pages
of Esquire – provided inspiration for his unique approach to advertising,
When Esquire began in 1933, its most popular and alluring feature soon became its
“girlie” cartoons “combining cultural sophistication and bawdy humor.”6 A number
of illustrators, such as E. Simms Campbell, created what became the “modern ideal of
the Esquire women,” but the two most famous were George Petty’s “Petty Girl” and
Alberto Vargas’s airbrushed “Varga Girl.”7 Illustrated iconic beauty had been well
13
1
Meggs, Philip B.; Purvis, Alston W. Meggs’
History of Graphic Design. Hoboken: John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006, 389.
2 Ibid., 374.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid., 338.
5 Ibid., 352.
6 Buszek, Maria Elena. Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture. Durham:
Duke University Press, 2006, 202.
7 Ibid., 202.
established in American minds since the late 1800s when Charles Dana Gibson created
the famous “Gibson Girl” rendered in Life magazine. Admired by men and women,
the Gibson Girl had set the standard of femininity, fashion and morals.8 Mainstream
commercial artists made their living during the 1920s illustrating “pretty girl” cover
images to satisfy the demand shaped by the publishing and editorial industry. Illustrators included J.C. Leyendecker, Howard Christy, and Cole Philips, who is known for
his pin-up images in Holeproof Hosiery advertisements and his inventive use of the
“fade-away” method.9
I Love These Slow-burning
Springmaid Sheets
Photographic advertisement, black and white
with Gypsy Rose Lee
(above)
8
Martignette, Charles G.; Meisel, Louis K.
The Great American Pin-Up. Hohenzollernring: Taschen, 2002, 35.
9 Ibid., 39.
10 Buszek, Maria Elena. Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture. Durham:
Duke University Press, 2006, 186.
11 Ibid., 202.
12 Ibid., 185.
13 Reichert, Tom. The Erotic History of
Advertising. Amherst: Prometheus Books,
2003, 105, 107.
14 Ibid., 102.
15 Sivulka, Juliann. Soap, Sex and Cigarettes:
A Cultural History of American Advertising.
Boston: Wadsworth, 2012, 202.
Advertising in America -The First 200 Years.
Boston: Wadsworth, 2012, 206.
During World War II, the pin-up became wildly popular through Esquire’s representation of the “Varga Girl” illustrations consumed by the servicemen on the war front.
As author Maria Elena Buszek states, “[Alberto] Vargas’s pin-ups became ubiquitous
icons for the genre itself – so much so that any illustrated pin-up girl would come to
be widely referred to as a Varga Girl, a common generalization that continues to this
day.”10 Pin-up illustration was an active part of the war effort. Esquire distributed
the publication throughout the ranks and produced calendars to be sent overseas to
the troops. The illustrations were pinned up next to photographs of family, wives or
girlfriends at home, or appropriated as talismans on the front of airplanes. Varga Girl
illustrations became propaganda, reminding servicemen what they were fighting for.
Robust, athletic, presented in “various states of undress, often humorous and placed in
modern sexual situations,” the Varga Girl represented the increasingly self-aware war
gal with new roles in the workforce.11 These images helped popularize a growing acceptance of a self-confident, sexually aggressive modern female in the public sphere.12
Springs’ military service during both World War I and World War II would have
solidified his understanding of the popular impact of pin-up illustration on his generation. Pin-up popularity continued after World War II through business trade advertising. Before the 1950s the illustrative sexual imagery of women was commonly used
on calendars, magnets, and pins advertising businesses to businessmen. Tom Reichert,
in The Erotic History of Advertising explains, “The calendar is a special item because, if
used, it guarantees a year of exposure – of having the business name and phone number
right in the consumer’s face. What better way to ensure the adoption of a calendar than
with proactive images of women – as long as wives and female coworkers don’t see it.
Many images featured salacious illustrations of women … peek-a-boo shots captured
women in compromising positions.”13 Many also featured puns and double entendre.
Similar images and copy were used in trade publications that served the bachelor culture in business, especially during the 1930s and 1940s. Men in trade were the likeliest
target audience, and provocative images of women captured male attention, promoting
unglamorous products such as mechanical parts or varnish.14
Post World War II American society was a time of unprecedented economic growth.
There was great promise with new technologies, materials, labor-saving devices and
medical breakthroughs. Suburban homes, large families, automobiles and television
were the symbols of a prosperous future; mass consumption was taken to new heights.15
The idea of the household and its items being a “status symbol” became established.
For a decade after the war, there was an initial boom; Americans purchased products
that were unavailable during the war and unaffordable during the depression.16 Advertisers and marketers began to promote the concept of “newness” – planned obsolescence – to promote more frequent purchases.17 Along with this economic boom came
a nostalgia for “the way things had been before” the war.18 America reclaimed its ideals
and style from the end of the 1930s. Illustrators such as Norman Rockwell represented
the loving traditions of the family in advertisements for Quaker Oats. For advertisers
14
to compete in an increasingly cluttered marketplace, market segmentation shifted from
the established predominant female consumer to couples and even to just men. “The
efforts to conceptualize the men’s market had begun in the 1930s and 1940s.”19 The
male consumer became the focus of advertisers and publishers promoting cigarettes and
automobiles as well as magazines and toiletries. In the 1940s most advertising themes
were geared towards the male, with females shown as sultry sexpot versions of Hollywood stardom personified in the Betty Grables and Rita Hayworths of the day. Esquire,
and later Playboy and other magazines, “linked a seductive middle-class lifestyle with
masculinity” and expanded the acceptance of casual humor and sexual explicitness
in advertising into mainstream media.20 Sexually suggestive imagery did the trick as
proven by trade publications and the celebrity of Esquire.
Springs determined that for Springs Cotton Mills advertising to stand out in this
cluttered marketplace it would require more than just another image of a girl underneath a sheet. He wanted an image that provoked and humored; that combined the
ridiculous with the sublime by revising a typical sexy ad into a cartoon.
To popularize the company image in the textile market and serve to further the
reputation of the company, Springs developed Miss Springmaid as a strategy to brand
Springs Cotton Mill sheets and fabric products. Springs shrewdly developed the company marketing into a nationally recognizable brand by choosing the fresh-faced milkmaid as the iconic image of womanhood instead of the sexy divorcee – even though, by
the 1950s, Gypsy Rose Lee became a running theme of the adult woman who could,
with tongue-in cheek, proclaim that not only could she “spike a rumor” [or depending
on the particular advertisement, roomer], she “loved slow burning sheets.”
We see reference to the popularity of the Varga Girl in a series of Springmaid advertisements from 1943. James Montgomery Flagg, known for his famous “I Want You”
Uncle Sam recruitment poster, illustrates three Springmaids seated in various poses
on cotton bales or bolts of fabric, with scenes of textile mills or a steamboat in the
background. Dressed only in a short, loosely draped apron and bonnet, these alluring
female figures and accompanying advertising copy appeared in national magazines
explaining the reasons for the scarcity of Springs’ fabrics on the retail market. Springs
Cotton Mills focused on wartime production and produced cotton twill for uniforms,
gas masks, gun covers and tent duck among other items. The illustrated Miss Springmaid of the 1943 advertisement was to become an icon of what the ad’s copy refers to
as tomorrow’s “happier days.”21
Springs Ads in Real Life /
If We Could Only Make Sheets
Advertisement, includes photographic
reenactments of ‘We Love to Catch Them’;
‘Watch the Butter Fly’; and
‘A Buck Well Spent’
(below)
The early look of Springs’ ad campaigns established the iconic beauty “Miss Springmaid.” She was “country fresh” and would remain constant, regardless of whether
the advertisement appeared in company bulletins, business and trade publications or
national magazines such as Forbes, or Life.22 The logo depicted a milkmaid in the foreground of a landscape replete with a windmill, trees and a waterfall.
A 1946 company publication – the Springs Bulletin – showed six examples of the
quintessential pin-up girl, Miss Springmaid, each created by a different illustrator:
Rockwell Kent, George Petty, Russell Patterson, James Montgomery Flagg, Clayton
Knight and Author William Brown. The full-page spread exclaimed, “Look … now
I’m a Petty Girl!” Readers could request their very own “Springmaid Pinup Gallery
… worth framing and displaying in your home!” A calendar of these images was also
published in 1947.23 This early pin-up lineup was represented in milkmaid fashion,
exposing little skin with full, long or knee-length skirts, aprons and bonnets, modest in
comparison to later advertisements and the true Petty or Varga Girls.
15
19
Sivulka, Juliann. Soap, Sex and Cigarettes:
Boston: Wadsworth, 2012, 220-221.
Boston: Wadsworth, 2012, 220-221.
21 Springs Close Family Archives.
1987, 144.
23 Springs Close Family Archives.
Springmaid, 1943
Advertisement illustrated by
13 3/4 x 10 1/2 inches
(right)
24
Springs, Elliott White. Clothes Make the
Man or How to Put the Broad in Broadcloth.
New York: The Empyrean Press, 1958, 103.
25 Ibid, 115.
26 See Springs Close Family Archives for
original illustrations.
Springs’ self-published book titled Clothes Make the Man or How to Put the Broad
in Broad Cloth compiles his correspondence regarding the advertising campaigns, offering a view into his creative process. To create his advertisements, Springs purchased
artwork from studios or work that previously appeared in print, as in Esquire magazine,
and adapted it to his purposes. In Clothes Make the Man, a number of letters expressed
his dissatisfaction with illustrators portraying his “look” and concepts as he began
to create his new advertising program. He remarked on the examples with “a pretty
model in bed between Springmaid sheets” and stated they “go as far as the wastebasket here.”24 By Jan. 28, 1948 Springs instructed his advertising vice president in New
York, Hill Wolfe, to “Go to the magazine and purchase the original art work and the
copyright” – not caring if they had been used editorially.25 The first three purchased
were “Be Protected” by Fritz Willis, originally titled “Weather Forecast,” which appeared on the cover of Esquire October 1947; “Protect Yourself” by Frederick Smith
was on the cover of Esquire April 1946; and “How to Kill Two Birds” illustrated by E.
Simms Campbell was on the cover of Esquire February 1948.26 The relationship with
Esquire was short-lived with only three purchased covers, but the magazine was an appropriate choice for the provocative look Springs wished to achieve.
Purchasing artwork from well known artists of the day for commercial purposes was
well established and became acceptable practice by the late 1880s. “Baker’s Chocolate
had been using black and white drawings of La Belle Chocolataire by Jean Etienne Liotard as a trademark since the 1870s. Pear’s soap also bought an oil painting by Sir John
Millais for €2300 and converted it to their trademark” in 1886.27 Professional artists
16
during the early 1900s such as Will Bradley, Aubrey Beardsley and Henri de ToulouseLautrec further made fine design acceptable for commercial projects. Artwork commissioned outside an agency for advertising was the norm up until the Depression, when it
moved in-house to save money.
Springs also commissioned illustrators to create the look he envisioned. In Springs’
strategy to purposefully use provocative imagery to grab the readers’ attention, he
thought showing too much skin was bad taste. “He believed the best way of stopping
readers who were scanning two hundred ads in a Saturday Evening Post was to show
them something they didn’t ordinarily see, but show so little of it, it forced the readers
to use their imaginations.”28 The advertising industry now calls this strategy “The
Tease.”29 Once he had stopped the reader with the visual, he captured their attention
with clever verse and a prominent logo for Springmaid Fabrics.
Springs rationalized his advertising approach and deliberately captured the perfect
image with a “light touch.” As Dalrymple and Goodrum describe in Advertising in
America, Springs felt you must “treat your reader as an intelligent peer, … you had to
offer some product benefit to justify stopping him, … the actual sex image should not
only be used with humor – a light touch – but with respect … [and] the ‘object’ must
not be being taken advantage of.”30 Springs found it difficult to achieve at first. In
Clothes Make the Man, a letter addressed to a fictitious ad agency, dated Feb. 15, 1947,
describes his frustration:
What I wanted was a subtle picture of a girl with her skirt agitated by the
wind. You send me down a picture of a girl with her skirts blown over her
head like she was standing over an air jet at Coney Island! It’s about as subtle
as the Can Can. Try again.31
In a subsequent letter dated Feb. 3, 1948 he writes:
The sketch of the girl and the wind is fine, I’m glad to get it and, also, to have
the skaters …. But in the future, make sure that our model has on both a bra
and slip, if anything is showing. Keep the attention on one thing at a time.
In this series we are selling material for pants, so don’t make the model titillating.32
Included in this image of iconic beauty were Elliott White Springs’ real-life Miss
Springmaids. During his 28-year tenure at the helm of the various Springs Mills Industries, Springs was able to forge a close relationship with his mill operatives. He was seen
as a strong leader, a man who could roll up his sleeves to fix any machine, and the man
who could keep the mills running during hard times.33 When Springs shrewdly used
local scenery as the backdrop of many of his campaigns and included local women who
worked at the mills, he capitalized on community sentiment and loyalty to the company, strengthening his campaigns. Springs Park, which opened in 1940, was owned
and operated by Leroy Springs & Company. It became the location where Springs
would hold his annual Miss Springmaid contests from 1946 to 1951. “The contests, he
felt, would provide opportunities to the young women who spent their lives working in
the mills.”34
In an August 1950 letter to J.R. Swan, the company’s advertising agent, Springs explained that, in addition to the contest, “the real feature of the day was the animation
of our advertising.”35 Three floats that re-enacted in real time the advertising campaigns “Watch the Butter Fly,” the “Buck Well Spent,” and “We Love to Catch Them”
were “the best stunt” pulled at the Park in ten years.”36 Springs goes on to run these
17
28 Dalrymple,
Helen, and Goodrum, Charles.
New York: Abrams, 1990, 32. , 76.
29 Ibid., 80.
30 Ibid.
31 Springs, Elliott White. Clothes Make the
32 Ibid., 117
1987, 107.
34 Davis, Burke. War Bird the Life and Times
35 Springs, Elliott White. Clothes Make the
36 Ibid., 186.
ads with the new re-enacted photographs, which included young female mill operatives
Bernice Frazer, Jane Murray and Elaine Gladden in place of the illustrated versions.
Due to Springs’ clever inclusion of the mill operatives, the floats became an integral
part of the community.
The winner and runners-up of the Miss Springmaid contests would be treated to an
all-expense paid trip to New York, a new wardrobe and exposure to New York nightlife. Most of the women, Willie Mae Etters and Allie Mae Starnes for example, worked
their entire lives at the mills. Etters, although married, entered and won in 1948 and
had her portrait painted by James Montgomery Flagg. Ann Sellers, winner in 1949, was
captured by illustrator Russell Paterson and Arthur William Brown. Mavis Funderburk
was the winner in 1950 and illustrated by Wales Turner. Most fondly remember their
trip to New York as a major highlight and one of the best experiences of their life. As
evidence of how important the mill was to the community, many felt it was an honor
to have actually met and spoken to Springs.
Springs played with subjects beyond the pin-up genre, appropriating social taboos
such as race, physical oddity and cultural practices, but subversive undertones of sexual
innuendo remained the focus for the advertising. This is most prominent in the series
of advertisements employing Native American imagery. One ad illustrated by E. Simms
Campbell stated “since she went off the reservation she insists on wearing Springmaid
sheets under her blanket.” The most famous advertisement titled “A Buck Well Spent
on a Springmaid Sheet” illustrates a female Native American Indian elegantly stepping
from a Springmaid sheet hammock leaving behind a “well spent” male buck.
From the moment the ads were launched, Springs became a provocateur locked in
controversy, to his delight. Time reported in July 26, 1948, “Such lusty ballyhoo …
startled readers of the high necked New York Times …. It also drew a shocked cry
of ‘bad taste’ from Advertising Age and protest from the New Yorker, Life and other
magazines that refused to run Springmaid copy until such phrases as ‘ham hamper’,
‘lung-lifter’, and ‘rumba aroma’ were deleted.”37 An advertising trade magazine, Tide,
August 1948, stated “such advertising fails to achieve the fundamental objective of all
product advertising – to sell goods.”38 But despite the critics, what remains fact is the
success of the campaigns Springs masterminded, establishing his legacy in advertising history. As Tom Reichert describes, “Springs single-handedly changed the look of
advertising with his sex-tinged advertising strategy” and established “mainstreaming
humorous and witty uses of sex in advertising.”39 The ads were more than publicity.
Surveys showed the ads resulted in far greater brand recall than any other campaign
from 1947 to 1951.40
37 “Textile
Tempest.” Time (July 26, 1948).
“Tide Leadership Survey.” Tide (August 27,
1948).
2003, 138.
Advertising in America - The First 200 Years.
38
18
Miss Springmaids in New York
200 Church Street office September 9, 1947
Springs remained heavily involved in all campaigns. At times he would hire a photographer to pose the Springmaids in a studio in Lancaster, S.C. These photographs
were sent to the New York agency for further refinement.41 Springs wrote the advertising copy, purposefully fanning the furor over the imagery and overtly sexual puns.
From the beginning, Elliott Springs “was convinced that he would have to market
something different from his competitors. The venture would have to be bold and innovative.”42 With his past literary career and creative mind, Springs was able to be “bold
and innovative … and hit the advertising world with fresh ideas that would sell sheets
and pillowcases as they had never been sold before.”43 It worked. He had expanded
the business until it was the third largest textile producer in the country.44 Springs
achieved the brand recognition he had been searching for as Springmaid became a
household name and “sales of Springmaid sheets increased until Springs’s death in
1959.”45
Karen Derksen
41 Davis,
Burke. War Bird the Life and Times
of Elliot White Springs. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1987, 25-30.
1987, 142.
43 Ibid.
2003, 142.
19
Selected Work
You Can’t Go Wrong on Fort Mill
Sheets, no date
Unidentified
(right)
Illustrated by
Reproduction
(left)
Illustrated by
Clayton Knight
20
21
Take Me Home to Mother, no date
Springmaid, circa 1943
Joseph Golinkin
Illustrated by
(left)
Illustrated by
background
(next page left)
Illustrated by
Illustrated by
(right)
(next page right)
22
23
24
25
26
Ann Sellers as
Miss Springmaid, circa 1948
Illustrated by
Russell Patterson
Watercolor, 23 x 16 inches
(left)
Leap Year Greetings From
Your Best Girl!, circa 1947
Illustrated by
Arthur William Brown
Reprint, 13 x 10 inches
posed by
Dorothy Williams
(right)
27
28
Illustrated by
George Petty
Watercolor, 20 1/4 x 12 1/2 inches
(left)
The Springmaid, May – June, 1947
Illustrated by
Rockwell Kent
Springmaid Calendar 1947
17 x 12 inches
(right)
Untitled, no date
Illustrated by
Rockwell Kent
Woodblock print, 6 1/8 x 7 1/8 inches
(inset)
The Springmaid, September –
October, 1947
Illustrated by
17 x 12 inches
Collection of Springs Close Family Archives (next page left)
The Springmaid, March – April, 1947
Illustrated by
Clayton Knight
17 x 12 inches
Collection of Springs Close Family Archives (next page right)
The Springmaid, November –
December, 1947
Illustrated by
17 x 12 inches
Collection of Springs Close Family Archives (following page left)
The Springmaid, July – August, 1947
Illustrated by
Russell Patterson
17 x 12 inches
(following page right)
29
30
31
32
33
Be Protected, circa 1947
Illustrated by
Fritz Willis
Watercolor, 19 x 15 3/4 inches
Originally published: Weather Forecast Esquire, October 1947
Advertisement
34
Defy Diaphoresis, no date
Illustrated by
Fritz Willis
Advertisement featuring couple
35
Protect Yourself, circa 1946
Illustrated by
Frederick Smith
Originally published: Esquire, April 1946
Advertisement
36
Safe in the End Zone, circa 1949
Illustrated by
Vernon Grant
Advertisement
Title also listed as
I’ ll Dye for Dear Old Rutgers
37
38
How to Kill Two Birds, circa 1948
Illustrated by
E. Simms Campbell
Watercolor and ink, 21 x 16 inches
Originally published: Esquire, February 1948
Advertisement
Title also listed as Perfume-Parabolics
(left and inset)
Certainly we’re Taking it . . . they’re
Springmaid Sheets and I have a Full
Chest Too
Photographic advertisement
(right)
39
40
A Bride Must Have Her Chest, no date
Illustrated by
Wales Turner
Watercolor, 20 1/2 x 18 inches
Advertisement
(left and top right)
Legs, no date
Illustrated by
Unidentified
Pen and ink, 7 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches
(inset)
41
Watch the Butter Fly,
Watch the Butter Fly, no date
Elaine Gladden
Wales Turner
Photographic advertisement posed by
(left)
Illustrated by
Advertisement
(inset and right)
42
43
44
A Buck Well Spent, circa 1949
A Buck Well Spent
Wales Turner
Jane Murray and Yates Ward
Illustrated by
Advertisement
(inset and left)
45
(right)
46
47
48
Since She Went Off the Reservation
How to Make an Extra Buck, no date
Two Bucks on the Line, no date
Wales Turner
Wales Turner
Illustrated by
Advertisement
(previous page left)
Illustrated by
Advertisement
(previous page right)
49
E. Simmons Campbell
(left)
Any Squaw Would Be Glad to Have
Springmaid Sheets in her Tepee
Jean Peters
(right)
50
Bundling Without Bungling
(left)
Bundling Without Bungling,
posed by
Nanette Fabray and George Guetary
(right)
Bundling Without Bungling, no date
Illustrated by
(inset right)
51
Bungled Bundling, no date
Advertisement llustrated by
Unidentified
Advertisement
52
You Can’t Stretch a Good Thing, no date
Illustrated by
Unidentified (W. R.)
Advertisement
53
54
She Lives in Utica
Wales Turner
(left)
55
Springmaid Delivers the Goods in a
Fine Airman Shirt
Unidentified
13 1/2 x 10 3/4 inches
(right)
The Deb Who Made the Party, no date
Illustrated by
(top)
Illustrated by
(bottom)
The Deb Who Made the Party
Reprint, 13 1/2 x 10 3/4 inches
(right)
56
57
58
How to Make a Buck for a Banquet
R. Hogfeldt
(left)
Hold Everything! The Chief Has Just
Bought Springmaid Sheets and Wants
breakfast in Bed
Advertisement reprint illustrated by
Michael Berry
(top)
How to Make a Buck for a Banquet,
no date
Illustrated by
R. Hogfeldt
Print, 14 x 19 inches
(bottom)
59
60
We Love to Catch Them
We Love to Catch Them, circa 1949
Wales Turner
Unidentified
Bernice Frazer
(left)
Illustrated by
Pen and ink, 16 1/2 x 19 inches
(inset)
61
University of South Carolina (right)
62
I Love to Navigate
Unidentified
(left)
She Claims a Springmaid Sheet is
Faster and Smoother
Magic Carpet Ride, no date
E. Simms Campbell
(right)
(inset)
63
Illustrated by
E. Simms Campbell
Lady, That’s No Way to Spike a Roomer
Photographic advertisement, color
posed by Gypsy Rose Lee
64
I’m Going to Spike a Rumor
posed by Gypsy Rose Lee
65
no date
Illustrated by
Russell Patterson
Advertisement
(inset)
66
We Put the Broad in Broadcloth and
Now the Filly in Chlorophyll
Unidentified
67
Exhibition Checklist
Merchants Trade Journal, December 1951
American Legion Magazine, January 1952
Collection of South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina
All original artwork is on loan from the Collection of Springs Close
Family Archives. Every attempt has been made to determine the dates
and media cited from the resources available at the time of this
publication. Dimensions are in inches; height precedes width.
Any Squaw Would Be Glad to Have Springmaid Sheets in
her Tepee
Reproduction of photographic advertisement posed by Jean Peters
Published in:
Ladies Home Journal, January 1955
Good Housekeeping, January 1955
* Advertisements from the exhibition do not appear in the catalogue.
A Bride Must Have Her Chest, no date
Wales Turner
Watercolor, 20 1/2 x 18 inches
Be Protected, circa 1947
Fritz Willis
Originally published: Weather Forecast - Esquire, October 1947
A Bride Must Have Her Chest
Reproduction of advertisement illustrated by Wales Turner
Published in:
Promenade, May 1950
Cosmopolitan, November 1950
Liberty, June 1950
Town & Country, June 1950
Be Protected
Reproduction of advertisement illustrated by Fritz Willis
Published in:
Collier’s, Aug. 28, 1948
A Buck Well Spent, circa 1949
Beware the Goose! *
Wales Turner
Reproduction of advertisement, unidentified artwork
Published in:
Linens & Domestics, October 1948
A Buck Well Spent
Published in:
Varsity, June 1950
US Air Service, April 1950
Pathfinder, Jul. 26, 1950
Southern Textile News, Aug. 5, 1950
Argosy, August 1950
Merchants Trade Journal, June 1950
Post Exchange, no date
Department Store Economist, no date
Installment Retailing, no date
Cavalier’s, no date
Motivationa, July-August 1957
Bungled Bundling
Published in:
Department Store Economist, July 1949
Liberty, June 1949
Today’s Woman, July 1949
Merchants Trade Journal, July 1949
Esquire, August 1949
Coronet, April 1950
Bundling Without Bungling, no date
A Buck Well Spent
Reproduction of photographic advertisement posed by Jane Murray
and Yates Ward
Published in:
Modern Bride, Spring 1951
Varsity, March 1951
Bundling Without Bungling
Russell Patterson
Reproduction of advertisement illustrated by Arthur William Brown
Published in:
Wall Street Journal, Feb. 7, 1949
Look, Feb. 19, 1949
Department Store Economist, March 1949
Promenade, April 1949
Newsweek, May 23, 1949
Merchants Trade Journal, March 1949
Another Springmaid Deb Nancy Brown *
Bundling Without Bungling,
Ann Sellers as Miss Springmaid, circa 1948
Reproduction of black and white photographic advertisement
Published in:
Department Store Economist, May 1950
The Billboard, Apr. 1, 1950
Barron’s National Business & Financial Weekly, Apr. 9, 1950
Reproduction of advertisement illustrated by
Published in:
Department Store Economist, November 1951
Barron’s National Business & Financial Weekly, July 1951
Promenade, October 1951, September 1951
68
Hold Everything! The Chief Has Just Bought Springmaid
Sheets and Wants breakfast in Bed
Garrison’s, May 1950
Merchants Trade Journal, May 1950
Reproduction of advertisement illustrated by Michael Berry
Certainly we’re Taking it . . . they’re Springmaid Sheets
and I have a Full Chest Too
How to Kill Two Birds, circa 1948
Reproduction of photographic advertisement
Published in:
Playboy, February 1955
Post Exchange, June 1957, June 1959
Premium Practice, June 1956, September 1957
E. Simms Campbell
Watercolor and ink, 21 x 16 inches
Originally published: Esquire February 1948
How to Kill Two Birds
Reproduction of advertisement illustrated by E. Simms Campbell
Published in:
Department Store Economist, June 1948
Title also listed as Perfume-Parabolics
Time, July 12, 1948
Defy Dermatitis *
Published in:
Promenade, November 1949
Town & Country, January 1950
Liberty, January 1950
US Air Services, January 1950
How to Make a Buck for a Banquet
Reproduction of advertisement illustrated by R. Hogfeldt
Published in:
Post Exchange, April 1957
True, Jan. 1956, March 1959
Premium Practice, April 1957 and November 1959
Installment Retailing, no date
House Beautiful, January 1959
Argosy, December 1958
Newsweek, December 1953
Defy Diaphoresis, no date
Fritz Willis
Defy Diaphoresis
Reproduction of advertisement featuring couple illustrated by Fritz
Willis
Published in:
Promenade, September 1948
How to Make an Extra Buck
Reproduction of advertisement featuring one woman illustrated by
Fritz Willis
Published in:
Town & Country, January 1949
The State, Jun. 2, 1949
Published in:
Barron’s National Business & Financial Weekly, July 1951
Sport, August 1951
Field & Stream, September 1951
Department Store Economist, October 1951
Linens & Domestics, November 1951
Princeton Tiger, March/April 1952
Premium Buyers Guide, September 1959
Don’t Feed Baby Onions *
I Love to Navigate
Defy Diaphoresis *
Published in:
Liberty, August 1949
Promenade, August 1949
The Carlton, August 1949
Esquire, September 1949
Published in:
Merchants Trade Journal, March 1954
Linens & Domestics, April 1954
Hunting & Fishing, September 1954
Elliott Springs, no date
Reproduction of black and white photographic advertisement featuring Gypsy Rose Lee
Southern Textile News, March 26, 1955
Fluorosckopy *
Lady That’s No Way to Spike a Roomer, no date
I’m Going to Spike a Rumor
Russell Patterson
Published in:
The Social Spectator, Feb. 14, 1950
Liberty, March 1950
Reproduction of advertisement illustrated by Russell Patterson
69
Miss Springmaid, July – August, 1947
House Beautiful, October 1958
Look, Feb. 3, 1959
Russell Patterson
Springmaid Calendar 1947, 17 x 12 inches
Miss Springmaid, September – October, 1947
Reproduction of color photographic advertisement featuring Gypsy
Rose Lee
Published in:
Department Store Economist, September 1958
Promenade, July 1959
Argosy, September 1959
Miss Springmaid, November – December, 1947
Leap Year Greetings From Your Best Girl!, 1947
Protect Your Assets *
Reproduction of advertisement featuring Dorothy Williams, Miss
Television, Illustrated by Arthur William Brown
Reproduction of advertisement illustrated by Fritz Willis
Published in:
Linens & Domestics, October 1948
Legs, no date
Protect Yourself, circa 1946
Unidentified
Frederick Smith
Originally published: Esquire, April 1946
Look . . Now I’m a Petty Girl!
Reproduction of advertisement, Springmaid illustrated by
George Petty
Protect Yourself
Reproduction of advertisement illustrated by Frederick Smith
Published in:
Department Store Economist, May 1948
Look . . I’m Making 91,000,000 Personal Appearances!
Reproduction of advertisement, Springmaid illustrated by Russell
Patterson
Safe in the End Zone, circa 1949
Vernon Grant
Magic Carpet Ride, no date
Safe in the End Zone
E. Simms Campbell
Clayton Knight
Reproduction of advertisement illustrated by Vernon Grant
Published in:
Coronet, August 1949
Esquire, October 1949
Title also listed as: I’ll Dye for Dear Old Rutgers
Promenade, June 1949
Miss Springmaid, no date
She Claims a Springmaid Sheet is Faster and Smoother
Reproduction of advertisement illustrated by E. Simms Campbell
Published in:
Installment Retailing, June 1960
Rockwell Kent
Woodblock print, 6 1/8 x 7 1/8 inches
Miss Springmaid, January – February, 1947
She Lives in Utica, no date
George Petty
Wales Turner
Miss Springmaid, March – April, 1947
She Lives in Utica
Clayton Knight
Reprint Springmaid Calendar 1947
Published in:
Promenade, June 1950
Liberty, July 1950
Merchants Trade Journal, July 1950
Department Store Economist, July 1950
Miss Springmaid, May – June, 1947
Rockwell Kent
70
Since She Went Off the Reservation
Reproduction of advertisement illustrated by E. Simmons Campbell
Published in:
Post Exchange and Commissary, November 1960
Installment Retailing, January 1961
Premium Practice, September 1960
Advertisement illustrated by James Montgomery Flagg
Reprint, 13 1/2 x 10 3/4 inches
George Petty
This is the Office That Runs the Mills
Reproduction of advertisement
Fort Mill, S.C., the Heart of the Cotton Belt illustrated by
Vernon Grant
Church and Wall Streets, the heart of the Textile District illustrated by
Fredrick P. Goodrich
Published in:
Cosmopolitan, July 1958
Springmaid, 1943
2007.026.079 cotton thread being swung
Springmaid
Two Bucks on a Line
13 3/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Life, October 1943
Published in:
Merchants Trade Journal, January 1951
Esquire’s Apparel Arts, January 1951
The American Family, March 1951
Daughters of the American Revolution, March 1951
Linens & Domestics, March 1951
True, March 1951
Hunting & Fishing, July 1951
Springmaid, 1943
2007.026.014 sitting on bolt w/ mill in background
Springmaid
12 3/4 x 9 1/2 inches
Life, October 1943
Watch the Butter Fly, no date
Wales Turner
Springmaid, 1943
Watch the Butter Fly
2007.026.013 sitting on cotton bale w/ steamboat
Published in:
The Social Spectator, Sept. 15, 1949
Department Store Economist, October 1949
Merchants Trade Journal, October 1949
Promenade, October 1949
Liberty, December 1949
Princeton Tiger, December 1949
Springmaid
13 3/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Life, October 1943
Springmaid Delivers the Goods in a Fine Airman Shirt
Watch the Butter Fly
Esquire, December 1946, 13 1/2 x 10 3/4 inches
Reproduction of photographic advertisement posed by Elaine Gladden
Published in:
Varsity, April 1950
Department Store Economist, January 1950
Merchant’s Trade Journal, January 1950
Pathfinder, Jan. 11, 1950
Today’s Woman, March 1950
Printer’s Ink, Nov. 3, 1950
Take Me Home to Mother, no date
Joseph Golinkin
We Love to Catch Them, circa 1949
Unidentified
Pen and ink, 16 1/2 x 19 inches
71
Published in:
The Social Spectator, Aug. 31, 1949
Collier’s, Oct. 1, 1949
Merchants Trade Journal, September 1949
Promenade, December 1949
Today’s Woman, January 1950
Argosy, January 1950
True, February 1950 and November 1950
Coronet, February 1950
Parade, April 1950
Varsity, January 1951
Additional Catalogue Images
Bundled Bungling, no date
Unidentified
How to Make a Buck for a Banquet, no date
R. Hogfeldt
Print, 14 x 19 inches
Reproduction of photographic advertisement posed by Bernice Frazer
Published in:
Cosmo, March 1959
Esquire, October 1958
Look, Aug. 23, 1955
We Put the Broad in Broadcloth and Now the Filly in Chlorophyll
Published in:
Department Store Economist, June 1953
Esquire, July 1953
McCall’s, 1953
How to Make an Extra Buck, no date
Wales Turner
I Love These Slow-burning Springmaid Sheets
Photographic advertisement, color with Connie Russell
Published in:
Esquire, July 1960
Cavalier, December 1959
Outdoor Life, March 1960
McCall’s, January 1960
Redbook, July 1960
Redbook, August 1959
You Can’t Go Wrong on Fort Mill Sheets, no date
Unidentified
Reproduction
Springs Ads in Real Life / If We Could Only Make Sheets
Advertisement, includes photographic reenactments of ‘We Love to
Catch Them’; ‘Watch the Butter Fly’; and ‘A Buck Well Spent’
Published in:
Lancaster News, Aug. 1, 1950
Tide, Nov. 3, 1950
Printer’s Ink, Nov. 3, 1950
You Can’t Stretch a Good Thing, no date
Unidentified (W. R.)
You Can’t Stretch a Good Thing
Reproduction of advertisement, unidentified artwork initials W. R.
Published in:
Argosy, January 1957
Installment Retailing, 1957, 1959
Redbook, April 1958
Department Store Economist, January 1959
Premium Practice, 1956 -1961
Post Exchange, April 1958, August 1957
Merchants Trade Journal, July 1951, August 1951
Linens & Domestics, June 1951, September 1951
Coronet, August 1951
Department Store Economist, August 1951
True, August 1951
Two Bucks on a Line, no date
Wales Turner
72
73
74
Acknowledgments
When presented with the opportunity to view the collection of original advertising maquettes
at the Springs Close Family Archives, I was thrilled to be looking at original works by famous American illustrators such as James Montgomery Flagg and Rockwell Kent in this local
archives. It has been a highlight to curate an exhibition around such prestigious illustrators and
a compelling individual such as Colonel Springs. I am thankful to Derick Close and the Close
family for their support and willingness to produce this exhibition. I am also especially grateful
to Springs Close Family Archivist, Ann Evans, for her vast knowledge, energy and enthusiasm assisting with this project. I also want to thank Nicki Nash and Bruce A. Brumfield from
Founders Federal Credit Union for their resources and commitment to make this catalogue
and exhibition a reality; Gary and Peggy Williams’ support in honor of the Close family; Susan
McLaughlin, for her ideas, time and energy; Dean Wohl, J. Terrell May, Winthrop’s Office of
Development, Patrons of Winthrop University Galleries and the members of the Fort Mill History Museum who helped make the exhibition and its educational programs possible.
Presenting this exhibition has been a collaborative process with the tireless efforts of many. I
would like to extend my gratitude to Francine Kola-Bankole and Danielle Donnelly for their
research and writing assistance for the catalogue and exhibition. I would also like to thank
Henry G. Fulmer and the staff at the South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina,
for their patience and assistance with the Springs advertisement research we were able to accomplish. I greatly appreciate the generous contributions by Jessica Johnson and Jacob Olsen who
skillfully framed and presented the work for the exhibition and Dustin Shores who documented
the original collection.
Special thanks go to Gerry Derksen who masterfully created the graphic material and catalogue
for the project; Linda Starrett for her advice and meticulous copy editing; Winthrop’s University
Relations department and the College of Visual and Performing Arts Dean’s office staff for their
contributions to this project. I am ever indebted to the on-going support of the undergraduate gallery assistants who tirelessly install all the exhibitions at Winthrop amongst many other
duties.
Between the Springmaid Sheets will tour to the South Carolina State Museum, Columbia, S.C.
April to September 2013. We are especially grateful to the museum and Paul Matheny for
the opportunity to bring the exhibition to a larger audience. I would also like to thank Amy
Shumaker from SCETV and Steve Folks, the director and producer of the documentary “Miss
Springmaid,” for their willingness and enthusiasm to present the film during the exhibition.
Through this process, I have had the pleasure to learn more about the absorbing history and
wonderful people of this region. It has been a thrill to meet the former Miss Springmaids.
Ladies, you are a joy, and I dedicate this catalogue to you for your never-ending vivacious spirit
and gracious beauty.
Karen Derksen
Director/Curator
75
Winthrop University
David Wohl, Dean
Tom Stanley, Chair
Department of Fine Arts
Chad Dresbach, Chair
Department of Design
Karen Derksen, Director
Undergraduate Gallery Assistants
Matt Horick
Sara Kinard
Samantha Oliver
Jacob Olsen
Fernando Pena
Casey Shelton
The Rutledge Gallery and the Elizabeth Dunlap Patrick Galleries are located in the historic
Rutledge Building and the Edmund Lewandowski Student Gallery is located in McLaurin Hall
on the campus of Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. For more information call
803/323-2493 or visit www.winthrop.edu/vpa/galleries.
76

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Transcription

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