The American Weekly

The American Weekly

My interest in this painting started with a mail order dress pattern I found in an Antique shop, which was originally bought through American Weekly Magazine. The American Weekly was a Sunday newspaper supplement published by the Hearst Corporation from November 1, 1896, until 1966. During the 1890s, publications were inserted into Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. Hearst had the eight-page Women's Home Journal and the 16-page Sunday American Magazine, which later became The American Weekly.

This pattern came from the pattern department of The American Weekly and was bought by a Mrs. Lester who lived in Devine Texas. The pattern was for a little girl named Carolyn, size 4. Mrs. Lester wrote the girls name on the pattern envelope. The pattern pieces are unprinted and it came with sewing instructions.

I tried to date the pattern but there isn’t postage. Apparently undated meters date mail order patterns. This one falls between 1930 and 1950 and costs about one to one and a half cents. It also has a serial number that narrows the date down from1933 to 1940.

Curious to see if I could fine any more clues to date this pattern I looked inside and found Mrs. Lester had used the local newspaper to make a copy of some of the pattern pieces. Because the tissue paper is so fragile, I can understand why she did this. I thought, great, I certainly will find a date on the newspaper pieces, but didn’t. Then I found a most unusual article about a man named Mr. Thorn from Taylor Texas who vowed to stay on his diet of dehydrated cereal grasses as a means of expressing his individual support of the European Aid Plan. I looked this up on Wikipedia and the closest I could find was the Marshal Plan, defined below.

The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was the American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1947. The goals of the United States were to rebuild a war-devastated region, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, and make Europe prosperous again.

 

After the aid bill had been passed Mr. Thorn had to taper off his grass diet and increase his daily caloric intake from 200 to 1200 calories. As they say, you can’t make this stuff up.

So the date of the pattern is in the 1940s. After establishing the date, I found some vintage fabric, a ribbon, and old buttons I thought would be appropriate for a little girl’s dress.

Oil on canvas board

14" X 11"

$770.00, plus shipping

Leighann Foster, foster3@gvtc.com

Website, www.leighannfoster.com

Find new and archival work.

Website, www.artistswhoteach.org

Artists Who Teach

Find an instructor and see great artwork.

Blog, www.leighannfoster.blogspot.com

Find drawings and paintings on SALE.