[New] Remember When Kalamazoo Corset Company

At the turn of the 20th century, fashion trends caused women to be bound in tightly bound laced corsets to achieve the ideal hourglass figure of the time.

Inventor, E.K. (Edward Kirk) Warren founded the Featherbone Corset Company, which began in the small town of Three Oakes, Michigan in 1883. A year later, operations were moved to Kalamazoo, under the direction of company president, James H. Hatfield and was renamed the Kalamazoo Corset Company three years later.

The company produced corsets for women made of lighter-weight and more comfortable turkey wing feathers (or featherbone) that were strong and pliable, for ribbing rather than whalebone (whale baleen was actually used, which is not bone), which became brittle and stiff over time and produced an unpleasant fishy odor on warm days. Warren’s featherbone invention revolutionized the manufacturing of ladies corsets.

The process was invented and patented by Warren. At its peak, the factory produced one and a half million corsets a year and employed more than 800 workers, mostly women.

The Kalamazoo Corset Company became the largest employer in the city and the largest manufacturer of women’s corsets in the world.

The factory was located in a fourstory building that once stood at the corner of Church and Eleanor Streets. As the company continued to grow and a new building around the corner facing Eleanor St. was constructed in 1899 and a third building was build on the vacant corner site joining these two structures in 1905, which completed the business complex. In the late 1950’s the building served as a temporary home for the Kalamazoo Public Library. Demolition of the buildings occurred in 1972 and l974. The site remained vacant until the parking lot for Kalamazoo County employees was completed in 1979 and is still on this site.

The company featured numerous lines of corsets, including Madame Grace and the American Beauty line, which became the focus of their advertising in 1908. These corsets were named to reflect a version on an idealized American woman – an “American Beauty.” Sending a message to the consumer – buy our corset and you will take on the American Beauty qualities.

The company became known for advertising with several promotional songs that were written about he American Beauty line. Promotional songs that advertised a product were becoming increasingly popular at the time. Since the end of the Civil War, Americans had been purchasing parlor pianos for their homes in great numbers—as many as 25,000 per year. The parlor piano became the center of most Americans’ musical experience. Music publishers, like those in the famous Tin Pan Alley of New York City, took note and sold sheet music aimed at these amateur musicians. The rise of music publish-

Girl” (1912).

The Kalamazoo Corset Company was the site of an historical labor strike, the first major strike by women workers in the Kalamazoo region. The strike began on March 2, 1912 by 500 of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union Local 82 (ILGWU). They were striking against poor wages, long hours, unsanitary working conditions and sexual harassment by male foremen. The ILGWU sent Josephine Casey and others from New York to help organize the workers. In a rally speech Casey said, “This is a fight for union workers marched through the city streets showing their support.

Picketing resumed and several people were arrested and jailed, including Josephine Casey. By June, newly elected progressive Mayor Charles B. Hays and Reverend Dr. W. M. Puffer presented a compromise proposal to the workers. On June 15, 1912 the union approved the contract that reinstated all workers. While the financial gains were not great (no wage lower than $5 a week), it was still a victory for the women workers who demanded “fair and honest” treatment by their employer, which was promised. The union sought to heal the wounds opened by the conflict by sponsoring music of the Fischer’s Worlds Fair Orchestra in the grand dance pavilion at Oakwood Park ing led to a new mode of advertising for retailers and manufacturers. The perfect way to promote a product by creating a tune that consumers could play in their homes. It seems the Kalamazoo Corset Company agreed, hiring Harry H. Zickel and the Zickel Bros. to write three such songs to advertise the “American Beauty” line: the “American Beauty March and Two-Step” (1908), “My American Beauty Rose: Ballad” (1910), and “My American Beauty our rights and I am going to stand by you to the end.”

In 1914, company President, Hatfield, left the firm to form the National Corset Company.

Sadly, Warren died at the age of 72 on January 16, 1919. In addition to his Featherbone Corset enterprise, he was a prominent citizen of Three Oaks and served at times as treasurer, clerk, and supervisor. Warren was also a philanthropist, establishing the Edward K. Warren Foundation to oversee the management of two 200acre tracts of forest and beach. These tracts were developed as Warren Dunes State Park, today one of the most popular state parks in Michigan, and Warren Woods State Park. The National Park Service has listed his home and the Warren Featherbone Company office building on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1922, the Kalamazoo Corset Company followed the fashion changes after World War I and began producing bras, girdles and other undergarments that carried the “Grace” name. The name of the company was changed to the Grace Corset Company ro reflect the new image.

In 1957, the Kalamazoo Corset Company was sold to the Flexnit Company of New Jersey, and ceased its local operations, thus ending an era of manufacturing of women’s fashions in Kalamazoo.

The picket lines were orderly until tensions escalated, and the owner gained a court order to stop them. The strikers complied with the order and held “silent picketing” or prayer meetings instead. They gained national headlines for their unusual style of picketing. They also boycotted Kalamazoo Corset Company products.

On March 30th a parade of 1,500

Sources: Kalamazoo, The Place Behind the Products by Massie/ Schmitt, Kalamazoo Lost & Found by Houghton/O’Connor, Kalamazoo Corset Company, Written by Beth Scott, Kalamazoo Public Library Staff, 1997. Last updated 16 May 2017. Women led this 1912 labor battle in Kalamazoo by Dave Hager, KG 9/19/82. Corset workers made local labor history, KG 7/26/87.

Jackie Merriam