Embroidered flour sack
Dates: between 1915 and 1916
Creator: Russell Milling Company
This cotton sack for Russell Milling Company flour was heavily embroidered and embellished with a linen ruffle. The printed company emblem and text have been over-embroidered, and there is a small appliquéd silk U.S. flag as well as the sentiment ?God bless you!? The sack?s back includes the names of the needleworker, Caroline Gielen, and the town Bilzen (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.